INTERVIEW WITH
GAIL RUTKOWSKI
Transportation and logistics management has
changed markedly in the past three decades.
Gail Rutkowski has watched, learned, and
played a role in much of what has happened.
Present
for the
revolution
BY PETER BRADLEY, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
THE DC VELOCITY Q&A
thoughtleaders
GAIL RUTKOWSKI GOT HER START IN TRANSPORtation and logistics just on the cusp of major shifts in the
way carriers and shippers worked together, shifts largely
brought on by deregulation in the 1980s. Today, 30 years
later, she serves as executive director of the National
Shippers Strategic Transportation Council (NASSTRAC),
one of the organizations that worked long and hard to
effect legislative and regulatory change.
Rutkowski brings a wealth of experience from both the
shipper and carrier sides of transportation management
to the position, which she accepted earlier this year. She
started out at Quaker Oats and went on to roles in management at Belden Wire and Cable, sales for C.H. Robinson,
and transportation management with Thomas & Betts and
Medline Industries. She started and ran the logistics services division of AIMS Logistics, before leaving it to launch
Wabash Worldwide Logistics.
Rutkowski has long been active in NASSTRAC, serving
a term as president and several years on the group’s executive committee, and was selected member of the year in
2003, 2005, and 2012. A member of the Illinois Chamber
of Commerce Infrastructure Council and the Chicago
Traffic Club, she is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. Rutkowski recently spoke to DC VELOCITY Editorial
Director Peter Bradley from her office in Chicago.
Q What brought you to logistics in the first place?
AI was very lucky. Early in my career, I was working for Sam Flint at Quaker Oats. Sam was a real mover
and shaker in the industry—he helped write the Railroad
Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act back in the ’70s.
I was working as secretary and had a bird’s eye view of how
shippers can make a difference and how he stepped up and
helped the congressmen and senators he was working with.
This was the first piece of transportation deregulation legislation. It was exciting to work for him and an exciting time
to be in transportation, to be at the forefront of watching
this unfold.
Quaker was the second or third company to get authority
to be a private carrier, and Sam spearheaded that effort. I
progressed in my career at Quaker Oats, ending up as fleet
manager. I got to work with the truckers and learned the
industry from the bottom up. I got to see both sides of the
business. From the fleet level, I learned how to work with
drivers, to spec trucks and crawl around trailers, and learn
