Sarasota County awards $60,000 in incentives

Sarasota County has awarded the second-largest freight brokerage company in the country a $60,000 performance-based incentive package to hire 100 people over eight years. 

The subsidies approved by Sarasota County commissioners are 20% of a total $300,000 package, with the rest of the funds coming from the state, according to public filings. The approvals, under the name Project Mango, fall under the state’s Qualified Targeted Industry Tax Refund Program. 

The name of the company isn’t listed in public documents. The company, according to the filing, “is a self-described non-asset based service provider that connects shippers and truck carriers. The company represents that it is the second largest freight brokerage firm in the United States.”

The company is based in Ohio and has opened satellite offices in 18 states over the last five years. Those expansions have led to 1,500 new jobs. “The company plans to open an office in Florida,” the filing states, “and represents that the QTI incentives are essential in its decision to relocate to Florida.”

The payout per job is $3,000. The company, according to the filing, has committed to paying the new hires an average annual wage of no less than $45,694, or at least 115% of the average annual wage of the region. 

The second-largest freight-brokerage firm in the county in 2014, according to rankings published by industry trade magazine Transport Topics, is Cincinnati-based Total Quality Logistics. In May, TQL announced plans to open a new carrier service division in Tampa, the first non-sales division outside of Ohio. TQL, according to its website, calls itself the “middle men of the transportation industry,” connecting companies needing products hauled with carriers delivering goods. It reported more than $2 billion in revenues in 2014, with at least 1 million loads transported.