 In the late 1800s, just after the tracks for the transcontinental railroad were laid in North Dakota, Charles Henry Robinson packed up his family and moved to Grand Forks. He was a native of New York City, a former traveling salesman from St. Louis, and he saw that settlers in Dakota Territory would need merchandise, vegetables, and fruit. In 1905, he incorporated C.H. Robinson Company to answer that need. Robinson had been operating a wholesale brokerage house for several years, but his new business set out to address one of the most complex logistical problems of his time: how to transport and distribute perishable products before they spoiled, even when the best means of distribution was by horse and buggy. And with that move, he set the tone for the company—hardworking, flexible, and service-oriented—for the next 100 years.
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| We’ve stayed close to our customers and the market, meeting every challenge with innovation. |
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In fact, C.H. Robinson’s history closely parallels the history of transportation in this country. We’ve seen it all—the introduction of the first non-ice-based refrigerated truck in 1939, the building of the interstate highway system starting in 1945, transportation deregulation in 1980. Each change has brought new ideas, new ways to better serve our customers, and following the lead of our founder, we’ve seized those opportunities. We’ve stayed close to our customers and the market, meeting every challenge with innovation, employing the best technology available, and satisfying the needs of our 18,000 customers. Even though we’ve changed our name to C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. to reflect our global capabilities, we retain our focus on the customer and on service as we provide multimodal transportation and logistics around the globe. 
As we begin our next 100 years in business, our people will continue to employ the high standards of integrity and service that would make C.H. Robinson, the man, proud. We’ll keep a sharp eye out for customer needs and fill them. We’ll never shy away from a challenge. Because we believe that when you give your all to take care of the customer, the company’s growth and profitability will follow.
View our interactive historical timeline:
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