HUNTERSVILLE – Charles Jeter refers to himself as “the government’s repo man.”
Working with a company in Virginia, Jeter’s company, Intermodal FCL, won a contract last fall as the exclusive provider of transportation and storage for all property seized by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Food and Drug Administration and the Treasury Department. The contract covers all 50 states and U.S. territories.
That means Jeter’s company gets the advance call when federal agents are about to serve a warrant seizing property of someone who did not pay their taxes. Jeter’s responsible for having trucks stationed nearby that can follow closely behind the officers and take the seized property to a secure storage area.
The effect on Jeter and the company has been immediate. He’s already tripled his employees, from three last fall to 10, and he’s in the process of hiring three more people now. Jeter said he expects to grow to up to 20 employees by July 1.
Intermodal FCL has moved from 900 square feet to an office with 3,000 square feet of space off Northcross Drive, backed up to Interstate 77. Jeter’s company always has operated largely as a trucking services broker, working with trucking companies across the country to arrange transportation, rather than owning the trucks. But those network connections enabled Jeter to offer the federal agencies widespread service with one company, he said.
Jeter made his bid as an exclusive subcontractor with VSE Corp., an Alexandria, Va., company that bid on a number of government contracts at the same time.
Intermodal has two contracts that together are worth roughly $13 million to $20 million annually, Jeter said. So the local company has in a matter of months, roughly quintupled its business, which was roughly $3 million in 2010. The contracts are awarded for at least 10 years and usually last longer.
Right now, Intermodal is overseeing 3 million square feet of seized property stored in 37 states and Puerto Rico, some of that property inherited from the previous contractor.
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