Family History of Innovative Intermodal
When the first trucks hit the streets, our family was there. In the early 1900s, John Mahacek started an Ice & Fuel hauling service in St. Louis MO with just one truck. The fleet of trucks expanded, and the name became Mahacek Hauling. John passed away in 1948 leaving behind a wife and six kids. His oldest son, Raymond Mahacek Sr., had to immediately begin driving a truck as a teenager to support his mom and younger siblings.
Raymond Sr married Jeanette Vonder Haar in 1952, and in 1952 they started St. Louis truck company “Freight Express”. Jeanette came from a family that operated “Vonder Haar Concrete”, started by her parents Alice and Al.
In 1959 Freight Express started operating the Piggyback ramp for the Frisco Railroad in St. Louis, now BNSF. Raymond’s brothers John, Donald, Bernard and Art all worked for Freight Express, and they grew to one of the largest Intermodal Carriers in St. Louis. In the 70s and 80s, Raymond and Jeanette’s two boys, Ray, Bob and son in-law Tom Meyer would also work at Freight Express.
In 1979 Raymond’s brother Donald started DEM Trucking, also doing Intermodal in St. Louis, and employing his children John, Vicki, Sandy and Paul.
Like many Union Truck Companies, Freight Express was negatively affected by deregulation and closed their doors in 1988. Raymond Sr’s youngest son, Bob Mahacek, soon started Baron’s Express, also based out of St. Louis doing Intermodal drayage. Of course, Bernard Mahacek was his first driver. Jeanette and Bob’s sister, Kathy Meyer, worked in the office for almost 30 years at Baron’s. In 2002, Baron’s and DEM merged, bringing on Donald’s daughter Vicki Keifer to run most of the day-to-day operations.
In 2010 Raymond Mahacek Jr started Innovative Intermodal in Chicago Illinois. Ray brought 25 years of previous leadership experience in Intermodal and a team of equally experienced Intermodal professionals. Innovative expanded rapidly in Chicago, and in 2016, Innovative acquired his brother Bob’s St. Louis Baron’s Express operations. Innovative has recently expanded into the Indianapolis market, for a total of three locations.
For over 100 years, our family has had roots in the trucking industry. With a lifelong passion for logistics, Ray has led our team at Innovative to become one of largest Intermodal Carriers in the Midwest.
