Technology lightens load for Union Storage & Transfer
By Jonathan Knutson
The Forum - 10/09/1999

Fargo's Union Storage & Transfer Co. has replaced heavy lifting with something a lot whole easier on the back.

"Technology has allowed us to transform a business that once involved a great deal of back-breaking labor into a much more efficient business that relies on computerization and modern equipment," said David Bertel, company president.

His brother, John, is vice president of the family owned and operated business.

The company, founded in 1906, has grown into one of the largest public warehouses in the Upper Midwest with more than 2 million cubic feet of storage. The company and its 35 employees provide agricultural chemical storage, general storage, cold storage, household moving and storage, and various other services for local customers and several Fortune 500 companies.

The company recently broke ground on a new freezer and cooler plant at 4701 15th Ave. N.W., Fargo. The plant will have 28,000 square feet and use the most modern refrigeration technologies available.

The new plant will help the company continue to grow, David Bertel said.

"We've grown about 40 percent (in sales) since 1990 and we'd like to think we'll do just as well in coming years,'" he said.

The company has set its sights on doing more business in Canada. The new plant is being built, in part, to make that possible.

The company has a long history of expansion and innovation.

The firm was formed as Union Transfer by a group of local businessman. Operating out of several buildings in downtown Fargo, it handled, distributed and shipped non-perishable merchandise, as well as farm implements and parts. Horses were used to transport the goods until 1917, when newfangled "motor trucks" were purchased.

In 1918, responding to public demand, the company added household goods storage, as well as packing and moving services.

In 1928 the company began its ongoing association with Allied Van Lines. As an Allied agent, the Fargo company began moving "household goods from and to any place in the United States," according to press accounts of the time.

In 1929 B. L. Bertel, grandfather of David and John, and several associates bought the company. B.L. Bertel, who as a young man spent six years in Minnesota cutting cord wood, railroad ties and logs for timber, joined the company in 1908 and became manager in 1912.

Bertel and the other new owners renamed the business Union Storage & Transfer Co. and began to expand it. Not long after buying the business, the new ownership announced plans to build a $75,000 cold storage plant in Fargo.

The plant, the first of its kind between Minneapolis-St. Paul and the West Coast, opened in 1930 and was a boon to area restaurants and meat wholesalers.

Despite the Great Depression and World War II, the company kept growing during the '30s and '40s.

At one point, Union Storage & Transfer had about 100 employees - many of them strong-backed fellows lifting and stacking heavy wooden crates.

"There was just a lot of hard, physical work to be done," David Bertel said.

B.L. Bertel died in 1963 and his son, Charles, father of David and John, became company president.

In 1971 the company moved most of its operation from downtown Fargo to newly built quarters at 4275 Main Ave., Fargo. The Main Avenue location subsequently has been renovated and the company is still based there.

Charles Bertel became company chairman in 1992. At that time, David Bertel, who joined the company in 1984, was named president and John Bertel, who joined the business in 1989, was named vice president.

Charles Bertel died in late 1992.

The business has changed in many ways since it was founded, John Bertel said.

For one thing, rail traffic - once the company's lifeblood - now accounts for only 10 percent of the company's business. Truck traffic accounts for the rest. That mirrors the nationwide industry average.

But a more significant change is the huge - and growing - role of technology.

Most obviously, back-breaking manual labor has been largely eliminated, thanks to things like forklifts, modern palletized rack storage and automatic load levelers.

Technology also affects the office staff. Once, the company had 10 office employees. Now, there are only four.

"That's because of computerization. Things are just easier and quicker because of computers," John Bertel said.

Computers also allow the company and its customers to better track the location of merchandise.

"That's really a big help to our customers," David Bertel said. "Sixty years ago, you might ship something out and not know for two weeks where it was. Now you always know."

All the fancy technology aside, the key to the company's success hasn't changed in the past 93 years.

"It still comes down to providing the best possible service to customers," Bertel said. "That was true in Grandfather's day and it's true today."