About Air Cargo Sales

ACS is a family-run corporation and is the progeny of a long line of frieght forwarding entities. The Shearer family became involved in the shipping business in 1918. Then George C. Shearer began deliverying film to theaters in the Pittsburgh area in the 1920s and 30s. The film industry needed a quick way to get newly released films and timely news reels from the studios of New York and Los Angeles to the theaters of other cities and towns. The film industry decided to use airplanes to ship their films. George, a displaced carpenter and theater set designer, found a new job in picking up the new film at the new Pittsbugh International Airport in a motorcycle with a sidecar and delivering the films to all the theaters in which he used to work. George’s son, Robert G. Shearer, eventually joined his father in running “George C. Shearer’s Exhibitor’s Service.” At this point, George and Son began to use trucks and vans instead of motorcycles and cars to deliver the films. Robert began moving general “Air Freight,” and not just films in 1952.

Eventually, young George C. Shearer II, the grandson of George C. and son of Robert G., became invovled in the business. The business grew quickly, Robert retired, and George C. Shearer II took over. George deciding to stay with the only business he knew, Air Freight. George began Air Parcel Delivery Serive in the 1970s. Shortly before ending the life of Air Parcel Delivery Service, George C. Shearer, II, along with others, started Total Transportation Corporation. Total was to be exactly as its name described, a total transportation solution for customers. Total was to route, warehouse, and deliver freight. Total was a Logistics pioneer in offering all of these services from one broker. Shortly thereafter, in 1979, George began another corporation, Air Cargo Sales, Inc. George eventually decided to concentrate completely on Air Cargo Sales’ newly found agency for the Atlanta based Profit Freight Systems, and resigned all management duties with Total Transportation.

Air Cargo Sales became agents for Profit Freight Systems in 1979. This meant that Air Cargo Sales would not only be involved in air freight, but in other forms of Cargo as well. Profit Freight Systems also grew and merged with the British firm, LEP International, to form LEP Profit International in the 1980’s. The merger increased international business for Profit and Air Cargo Sales, and made LEP Profit the International Logistics giant.

In the mid-1980’s, Air Cargo Sales expanded into the market of general Logistics. Air Cargo Sales became more than a shipping agent, it began warehousing, distribution, and delivery as well. In 1996, the Board of Directors decided that the company had outgrown the name “Air Cargo Sales,” and officially adopted the name “ACS” to relate to the customer all the different types of functions the corporation had the capability of fulfilling. ACS along with the freight industry have came a long way since George’s grandfather started delivering films in his motorcycle and sidecar. Air freight is now a part of “Logistics” and the corporation has gone from one person on a motorcycle to being ran by the fourth generation of the Shearer family.