Seacastle Chassis, the company founded as Interpool, and broker for intermodal shipping equipment, has changed its name to TRAC Intermodal. According to the company, the change is designed to better reflect its position as a provider of land and sea chassis operating systems.The company’s operations include long-term leasing, short-term rentals through neutral pool and fleet management through the company’s proprietary PoolStat system.
According to president and CEO Steve Rubin, the chassis market is facing new dynamics as an outcrop of recent federal regulatory updates. The national “roadability” law, which requires chassis operators to have a highly detailed maintenance and record-keeping program, is requiring shippers to upgrade the way they operate the business end, and in the wake of the global recession, several steamship lines have ceased providing chassis as a cost-included service to their customers.
Rubin says that while the new dynamic is undoubtedly going to make business more uncertain, TRAC is “extremely well-positioned to support our customers’ needs – after all, the chassis is one of the necessary components of the container trade.”
Rubin, a New Jersey native, grew up in Randolph, near Morristown. His father worked for the Department of Defense and his mother worked for the state DOT. He graduated from Penn in 1984 with a dual bachelor’s in history and economics and later earned his MBA from New York University before beginning his career in education overseas.
Rubin taught English in Japan, which in the 1980s was the apparent next dominant economic power . Always with a head for business, Rubin wanted to understand the Japanese culture and be part of its economic renaissance.
Rubin got his MBA and landed an accounting job with KPGM in New York. He then moved onto K-Line North America, a national trucking company, where he served as vice president of liner operations. At a Wall Street transportation conference Rubin met a man from Fortress, the investment group that facilitated the deal with Carlisle and Interpool, which eventually became Seacastle.
TRAC Intermodal’s fleet consists of approximately 245,000 chassis and containers in North America.
#b#TRAC Intermodal#/b#, 211 College Road East, Princeton 08540; 609-452-8900; fax, 609-452-8211. Steve Rubin, president and CEO. www.tracintermodal.com
