Listen on:
When Pete Menzies describes what Terminal Corp does, he skips the industry jargon entirely: “We pick things up, and we put them down.”
Behind that six-word summary sits 132 years of institutional memory, a crisis response that kept every employee working through an 11-week port closure, and a family business model that turns dinner conversations into competitive advantage.
From Railroad Asset to Family Legacy
By the mid-1960s, the railroad was shedding non-core assets. Pete’s great-grandfather, John T. Menzies Sr., saw opportunity. In 1964, he teamed up with his two sons to buy Terminal Warehouse Company and rebranded it as Terminal Corporation.
Three generations later, the family principle remains unchanged: move essential cargo reliably, build long-term relationships, and ignore trends that sound impressive but fall apart in actual warehouses.
The Family Difference
“The people making the commitments are the same people making the decisions,” Menzies explains. No corporate layers. Just direct access, faster answers, and genuine accountability.
“It’s our name. It’s our family brand. And as much as my wife hates it, it’s usually our dinner conversation.”
That dinner table reality became an operational advantage when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in March 2024, shutting down Baltimore’s shipping channel for 11 weeks. Terminal Corp tracked where diverted cargo landed—Norfolk, Philadelphia, New York—and sent trucks to bring it home.
The wheels kept turning with zero layoffs. “We owe our customers a big thank you for choosing to pay the additional cost to get their cargo back to Baltimore,” Menzies says. “That commitment really allowed us to pivot quickly.”
The Infrastructure Advantage
While Baltimore rebuilds the Key Bridge, the newly upgraded Howard Street Tunnel is reshaping the port’s competitive position. An additional 18 inches of clearance unlocks double-stack container rail service, making Baltimore the closest, fastest route for Midwest-bound freight, which was previously dominated by New York and Norfolk.
“More cargo coming here is exactly what we want to see,” Menzies notes. For Terminal Corp’s 1.5 million square feet of warehousing and intermodal drayage operations across Baltimore and Jacksonville, increased port volume helps everyone.
What Actually Matters
When asked what keeps him up at night, Menzies doesn’t mention revenue targets: “First and foremost, the safety of our team. My worst nightmare is someone getting seriously hurt. No delivery or deadline is worth that. The job isn’t done when freight’s delivered. It’s done when our people get home to their families.”
From baby formula deliveries in 1981 to today’s complex supply chains, Terminal Corporation has spent over a century executing the same fundamental mission: keeping essential goods and services moving so families, businesses, and communities function without disruption.