Building the Future of Modern Logistics

Teri Hoeft is a results-driven logistics executive with more than 30 years of experience leading high-performance transportation and supply chain operations across regional and national markets. As President of Wicker Park Logistics, she has grown the company from $4.5M to $19M in revenue by expanding into new verticals, securing $15M in multi-year contracts, and championing a digital transformation that improved operational efficiency by 32%. Previously, as Senior Director of Logistics Strategy & Operations at Top 50 3PL provider in the U.S., she led a national, multi-modal operation generating over $220M in revenue while consistently delivering 18% year-over-year growth. Her career also includes senior roles at Accenture's Supply Chain Management Practice, Werner Enterprises, CRST Capacity Solutions, and a 15-year tenure at Exel Transportation spanning operations, capacity management, technology development and business development.

Building Solutions Under Customer

At the heart of every effective 3PL solution is a genuine understanding of what the customer actually needs. Transportation management is not a “one size fits all” capability. Listen to the customer and identify root causes of their day-to-day pains and challenges instead of just diagnosing the symptoms. In addition to learning the daily challenges, you need to stay current on the real-world constraints and assess how to identify issues and mitigate risks. Effective solutions are agile and scalable, so a transportation solution can deliver value and maintain seamless and transparent value to the customers and their customers.

As customer demands grow more sophisticated, the logistics industry is responding with a sharper focus on technology. Leveraging and using technology is a major trend for asset and non-asset-based transportation companies. Customers want to know where their goods are and when they will arrive, especially as disruptions become more common. 3PL’s that know how to build a logistics control tower to monitor shipments, manage potential risks in real time, with predictive insights to identify disruptions before they occur are a growing trend, and customers have come to expect this level of transportation management.

Balancing Cost, Reliability and Flexibility

Managing the tension between cost efficiency, service reliability, and operational flexibility requires discipline from the outset. You must set expectations with customers and implement sustainable operational processes to support costs with service and for those operations to react to changes and disruptions, while mitigating service failures and avoidable costs. Outsourcing transportation operations to a 3PL provides that level of experience to offer flexible, technology-driven solutions to scale logistics operations without customers investing heavily in infrastructure.

3PL leadership is a distinct discipline, and the demands it places on individuals go well beyond operational oversight. The most effective leadership does not just manage freight – they build cultures, systems and instincts that hold up when everything else is under pressure. Lead with clarity and a clear priority hierarchy during a crisis: what gets protected first (the customer relationship), what gets triaged and what gets deprioritized. Effective 3PL leaders deliberately introduce controlled variability – cross-training roles, running contingency scenarios, rotating responsibilities so that adaptability becomes muscle memory, not a crisis response. When the unexpected happens, the team has already practiced being uncomfortable.

Beginning at the Ground Level

For those entering the field, the most important advice is simple: start at the ground level and take it seriously. Begin your career in freight payables, dispatch, customer service or carrier relations. Early exposure to the operational reality of moving freight is irreplaceable. Beginning at the ground level helps in understanding of why things go wrong, not just that they did go wrong. Don’t rush past entry-level roles to get to a title.

If you find a mentor who is an experienced practitioner who can pass hard-won knowledge to the next generation, it would be a game-changer. Find leaders whose judgement you respect, ask thoughtful questions and be genuinely coachable.