Mergenthaler History
Mergenthaler Transfer & Storage was formed by two brothers, Arthur and Nick Mergenthaler on March 28, 1933. At the start, the company’s assets consisted of one 1933 Dodge half-ton pickup with a canopy valued at $100.00.
In the early 1950’s the company acquired a United States Postal contract between the Helena post office and the local train depot. A permit was also acquired for transportation between Helena and Canyon Ferry Dam. While the dam was under construction, Mergenthaler’s hauled everything from steel rebar to laundry and mail for the bunk houses. Also during this time, Mergenthaler’s did local drayage work for a number of freight companies, starting with Butte-Helena Motor Freight, Western Express, and United Buckingham. The company continued to operate under the mode until the mid-1960’s.
During the late 1960’s, the company expanded with statewide household goods authority being purchased and Mergenthaler Transfer began offering interstate and intrastate moving for the first time. A new 8000 square foot warehouse was built. The company began hauling for and representing United Van Lines.
In 1972, Arther Mergenthaler passed away and his four sons, Chuck, Jerry, Jay and Bob elected to purchase the business. All through the 1970’s and 1980’s Mergenthaler’s continued to grow, adding more trucks and more employees.
During 1981, the company acquired contracts with Mountain Bell to transport telephone installation equipment from Utah to various points in Montana. Today Mergenthaler Transfer and Storage continues to serve the telecommunication industry in our special contracts division in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Utah.
The company currently has offices located in Helena, Great Falls, Bozeman, Billings, Missoula, Kalispell, Montana; Salt Lake City, Utah; Spokane, Kent, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The company has been growing at an average rate of 20% per year over the last decade. Diversified business lines lends to the company’s stability and financial strength.
As we look to the future we plan to continue to grow at a rate of 8% to 12% per year. We are preparing for this growth with continued training and retraining of crew and administrative staff. Managers are sent each year to leadership, industry and skills training classes such as Dale Carnegie Leadership Training and MAP (Management Action Program). We plan to continue to raise the bar on quality and performance.
