Today we’d like to introduce you to David L. Chalmers.
Hi David L. , we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started Bridgetown Trucking the way a lot of small companies do: new to the business, learning just in time, and saying “yes” to whatever it took to keep things moving. In the early days, I was a co-owner, truck driver, dispatcher, accountant, and warehouse manager all at once.
Growth came in stages—more trucks, more people, more hours on the road. When the moves got bigger—larger warehouses, new lanes, or scaling beyond a single truck—I treated each one as something that deserved real focus and careful thought.
Today, my role is less about being in the middle of operations and more about supporting the growth of our staff and our departments. I work closely with teams across operations, sales, accounting, and marketing—helping create structure where it’s needed and supporting leaders as they grow into their roles. My focus is simple: give people what they need to make good decisions and keep moving the company forward.
At my core, I’m a tinkerer. Some of my plumbing background still shows up in how I think—try something, adjust it, see what works, fix what doesn’t. I’ve probably taken more risks and made more mistakes than anyone at Bridgetown, but that process is how I’ve learned, adapted, and grown something that creates real value for both customers and employees.
Outside of work, I spend most of my time with my wife and our two kids. We travel when we can and try to make the most of the time we have together. Antoinette and I get to as many live music or comedy shows as we can, and we love exploring Portland’s food scene with friends. And, of course, I sneak in a round of golf when I can.
That time away keeps me grounded—and it’s what reinvigorates me to keep building Bridgetown into a world-class freight solutions company.
www.bridgetowntrucking.com/about-bridgetown-trucking
www.bridgetowntrucking.com/the-bridgetown-story
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Over 27 years, Bridgetown has seen its fair share of successes and challenges. We started this business with nothing, other than one delivery van. I am a trained and certified plumber, but I could not find steady union work in Portland, so I pivoted to an opportunity that presented itself to take over an existing business. There were two of us, and we had no money, no idea what we were doing, and no real plan. In that way, we’ve steadily grown over the years, despite our initial inexperience, lack of capital, a housing and market crash in 2009, the Covid pandemic, and recent uncertainty over tariff policy and energy prices. So, no, not a road without potholes, but definitely steady growth borne out of a willingness to take on difficult work and to do it well.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Bridgetown Trucking
I started Bridgetown Trucking in Portland in 1999. We expanded to St. Louis in 2013. Today we run two terminals: 285,000 square feet of warehouse space and 33 trucks in Portland, and 72,000 square feet and 15 trucks in St. Louis.
We’re an asset-based carrier and warehouse operator. That means we own the trucks, employ the drivers, and run the warehouses ourselves. No brokers. No middlemen. When a customer calls, the person who answers works for me, and so does everyone who touches their freight.
We built our reputation on the freight other companies won’t handle. Food-grade warehousing. Hazmat transport and storage. Customs bonded freight. Our facilities are FDA registered, GMP certified, and USDA Organic authorized. We hold DEA and Customs Bonded credentials. Every employee gets TSA certified as a condition of employment. We earned those certifications one audit at a time over 27 years, and they let us serve customers most regional carriers can’t.
Our Portland terminal covers Oregon, Washington, and western Idaho. Our trucks run more than 4,000 miles a day in the Northwest alone. St. Louis reaches Chicago, Memphis, Kansas City, and Evansville.
What I’m most proud of is the people. A lot of our team has been here ten years or longer. Drivers, dispatchers, warehouse crews, customer service. They know the freight, they know the customers, and they take it personally. I tell everyone the same thing: do the work, do it right, no shortcuts. That’s been the standard since day one and it’s the reason customers from 1999 are still customers today: You can still find a company where the owner knows your name, the driver shows up on time, and nobody passes the buck. That’s what we built.
What’s next?
Growth, but the right kind of growth. We’re not chasing volume for its own sake. We’re going deeper into the work we do best: food-grade warehousing, hazmat, and bonded freight. That freight demands certifications, trained people, and facilities that pass real audits. Fewer companies want to do that work every year, which means more customers need someone who will.
The biggest change underway is technology. We’re investing in AI and automation across the business, from how we quote freight to how we handle the back office. I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to be making those decisions at this point in my career. But the trucking companies that survive the next ten years will be the ones that adopt these tools without losing what makes them good. Our goal is simple: let technology handle the paperwork so our people can spend more time on customers and freight.
We’re also building out our team for the long haul. We’ve brought in new leadership at our Midwest operation and we keep promoting from within. The next generation of this company is already on the payroll.
What am I looking forward to? Honestly, the same thing I looked forward to in 1999. Putting trucks on the road, keeping warehouses full, and proving that an independent, family-run operation can outwork the big national players. We’ve done it for 27 years. The plan is to keep doing it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bridgetowntrucking.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetowntrucking/
- Facebook: https;//facebook.com/bridgetowntrucking
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bridgetown-freight-solutions/
- Youtube: www.youtube.com@BridgetownTrucking-ct
