Aim CIO, Tech VP Reed Hits 30-Year Milestone

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – John Reed, chief information officer and vice president of technology at Aim Transportation Solutions, recently celebrated his 30th anniversary at Aim.

Reed’s journey with Aim began in 1993 when he answered a newspaper job ad. Aim needed a computer programmer and Reed had been in the transportation industry for about a decade. Before 1993, he worked for a small software company developing programs that paid owner-operators, billed loads, printed truck driver paperwork and tracked accounting.

When Reed answered that newspaper ad, Aim looked very different than it does today. Then, Aim had about a dozen locations and was just getting Aim Integrated Logistics, the top-ranked division that provides dedicated fleet services and freight brokerage, off the ground. Across those 12 sites were just 100 employees, and only five of those locations were connected to the company’s computer system.

“When I got my start at Aim, my role was just helping to implement [Aim founder, chairman and CEO] Tom Fleming’s vision,” Reed says. “He always said he wanted to be a technology company with trucks and use that as our competitive advantage, and to this day we still live by this model and strive to stay ahead of the competition.”

Today Aim has 1,000 employees and operates about 100 locations across the country.

John and his team have earned three company “Innovator Awards.” One was earned this year for the Aim Navigator smartphone app and its Road Rescue feature, which allows Aim customer drivers to request roadside service quickly and easily from the app. The app supports two-way communication in multiple languages, a truly revolutionary feature given the diversity of America’s current driver force.

The other awards came in 2010 and 2013. They recognized Reed’s electronic driver vehicle condition report and a system that Reed developed that tracks training effectiveness.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.