The Founding (1978 – 1979)

SPI was founded over 40 years ago while its founder (entrepreneur Mitch Helten) was still a teenager.  In its first decade, SPI provided a corporate umbrella for Mitch’s varied business pursuits, which included import/export and international trade with Asia.  SPI became a full-time transportation brokerage firm when Mitch teamed up with seasoned transportation professional Jim Taggart (now SPI’s President Emeritus and commissioned sales representative).  Mitch and Jim knew each other from church, where they had played guitar and led singing for weekly folk masses. 

Humble Beginnings:

Early Years in Transportation.  The duo began operations together in the borrowed basement furnace room of Mitch’s mother’s house, but they quickly grew to the point that it was necessary to hire additional personnel and move to rented office space.  Over the years, the offices have been expanded and have moved to new locations as the operations have grown.

As the Company continued to increase in size, Mitch expanded the reach of the enterprise beyond its Vancouver headquarters by adding independent contractors paid purely on commissions.  These variable cost “agents” are paid a percentage (60% to 75%) of the gross profit for every load.  SPI’s longest-serving agents joined the company over 20 years ago.  

Leading the Industry in Technology:  

Early in SPI’s foray into transportation, Mitch recognized a need for transportation management software to operate the business.  Off-the-shelf software for small companies was not available at the time; internet connectivity was still years in the future; and dedicated data lines were inordinately expensive.  Mitch bypassed those obstacles by developing proprietary PC software for brokers and by connecting remote offices through dial-up modems and toll-free phone lines.  Early on, SPI was an industry leader in the utilization of technologies to match empty trucks with available loads.

Tailwind Spinoff:

Recognizing that SPI had uniquely solved a significant need in the industry, Mitch took advantage of SPI’s advanced technologies by spinning off SPI’s IT department as Tailwind Transportation Software.  Tailwind now provides software to more than 500 brokerage and trucking firms.  Tailwind’s latest cloud-based software product is designed for companies much smaller than SPI, which compelled SPI to transition in 2019 to a combination of software products that are better suited to the Company’s ambitious plans for rapid expansion. Envase Technologies purchased Tailwind in 2020, and Mitch remained an Envase shareholder until its sale to WiseTech Global in January 2023.

MC:

- #253915

Modes:

- FTL

- LTL

- Domestic US

- Domestic Canada

Office:

- Surrey, BC

Areas of Service: Canada, US and Mexico

Common Carrier

Heavy Haul/Oversized

Logistical Solutions

Truckload

Intermodal

Team Service/Expedited

Special Commodities

Ocean Container

Drayage Reefer/Temp-Control

Air

Less Than Truckload