Company Profile
Marquette Transportation Company, LLC
Company Overview
Ray Eckstein founded what is now the River Division of Marquette Transportation Company, LLC in 1978. Throughout the years we joined forces with two other family-owned businesses, Eckstein Marine Services and HLC Tugs, to add our Gulf-Inland and Offshore divisions, respectively. Each of our divisions has grown over the years, surviving grain embargoes, fluctuating fuel costs, and other challenges that led us to adapt, innovate, and prosper.
Today, we're the only fully-integrated, seamless transportation provider in the industry.
We're one of the nation’s fastest-growing providers of marine transportation solutions with the comprehensive, diversified capabilities that make us an industry leader.
Marquette has three operations, with a strategic mix of vessels powered with the latest marine technology and equipment to ensure safe, reliable, on-time service. Founded in 1978, our River unit now offers a fleet of more than 50 line haul vessels and 800+ dry cargo barges. In 2007, we added our Gulf-Inland unit (formerly Eckstein Marine) and our Offshore unit (formerly HLC Tugs) to create a seamless transportation experience for our customers.
With a long history of service excellence and a reputation for getting the job done safely and on time, we set a higher standard for marine transportation year after year.
Marquette At A Glance
We're one of the nation’s largest marine transportation services.
We own 800+ barges that are available to lease to our customers.
Our vessels are equipped with the industry’s most advanced navigational, communications, and safety equipment.
We transport over 40 million bushels of grain each month.
Marquette’s Offshore Towing Charter Operations provides diversified marine towing and operations to a variety of locations in and near the U.S., including the Eastern Seaboard, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico.
Offshore Fleet:
9 offshore tugboats, ranging from 2,400 - 5,000 HP Class
oilfield service and construction
dredge support, anchor handling, and contract towing
superior solutions to logistical challenges
The Offshore division greatly extends the markets available for your business. Our fleet includes some of the best navigational, communication, and safety equipment in the industry-and reliable, experienced crews to run them.
Company History
A History of the River Division
Now headquartered in the port city of Paducah, Kentucky, Marquette Transportation traces its roots to Cassville, Wisconsin, an old Mississippi River village where horses, not engines, powered the earliest ferries. Soon, the river became a catalyst of change. Towns and cities sprang up along the waterways, ushering in an economic boom with the growing demand for produce, dry goods and commodities.
In 1958, Ray Eckstein, a Cassville native, founded Wisconsin Barge Lines, a switch boat operation that he soon transformed into a bulk commodity carrier. Throughout the 60s, Wisconsin Barge flourished under the helm of Ray Eckstein, whose fleet of tugboats and hopper barges couriered a steady flow of commerce from port to port. When he later sold the company, Ray was asked to stay behind the wheel of the operation, which he did until the late 70s.
In 1978, Ray christened his new transportation company Marquette, which he named for Father Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit priest who lived among the Great Lakes Indians from 1666 to his death in 1675. Father Marquette is credited with helping Louis Jolliet map the Mississippi River.
Although Marquette Transportation started small, the company thrived as industry demand for export grain hit record levels. Ray Eckstein invested in more vessels, building his fleet to 12 towboats and 350 barges. But the early 80s pronounced a devastating downturn in the nation’s economy. Prime interest rates skyrocketed to 23% and President Jimmy Carter issued a grain embargo against America’s largest consumer of grain—Russia. Suddenly, the river business was reduced dramatically.
Marquette struggled in the midst of this economic storm. To stay afloat, Ray tightened his operation to two towboats and 70 barges and restructured the company. Marquette was now poised to take a new direction in its industry.
During the 90s, Marquette welcomed the addition of Ray’s son, John, to the company. As president, John Eckstein and his father made dramatic changes that strategically positioned Marquette from a barge operator to a line-haul towboat company that leased its barges to its towing customers. This move, combined with a major investment in the Marquette fleet and a focus on high-quality service, proved to be the company’s most successful venture to date.
Today, John carries forward the Marquette legacy of entrepreneurship and forward-thinking solutions to meet the demands of a new business world. With a world-class management team behind it, Marquette’s high-quality initiatives and innovative services have turned a once mom-and-pop operation into a vibrant marine transportation company serving some of the world’s largest suppliers of food and commodities. With a strategic mix of vessels across three fleets, Marquette now serves America’s inland rivers, the Gulf, Eastern Seaboard, and offshore destinations, such as the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America. Marquette’s River unit operates more than 50 line haul vessels and 800+ dry cargo barges. The company’s Gulf-Inland unit provides a fleet of more than 60 inland towing vessels, and its Offshore unit is comprised of 9 offshore tugs.
Gulf Inland Division History
Marquette’s Gulf-Inland unit, formerly known as Eckstein Marine Services (EMS), began as the brainchild of Randy Eckstein, the eldest son of Marquette Founder Ray Eckstein and brother to Marquette President John Eckstein.
Like others in his family, Randy grew up with the river in his blood. Growing up in Cassville, Wisconsin, Randy’s earliest days on the water began as a teenager cleaning barges. He worked his way down the river in the early 70s, starting as a dispatcher with Wisconsin Barge Lines then taking a position in St. Louis in barge operations. He eventually settled in New Orleans where he headed up Badger Fleet, Wisconsin Barge Lines’ major fleeting terminal. The late 70s brought an economic boom to the river industry. Fuel cost an unbelievable 19 cents a gallon and vessel captains made only $85 a day. For Randy, the timing couldn’t have been better to strike out on his own.
In 1978, Randy purchased his first boat and christened it Roslyn Eckstein after his wife. This purchase solidified his official entrance into the marine transportation industry as Eckstein Marine.
Over the next two years, Randy added three additional boats to his fleet and began operating throughout the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Concurrent with growing EMS, Randy also owned and operated Pelican Fleet, the largest independent fleet in New Orleans. By strategically combining the capabilities of his two businesses, Randy could now provide his customers with full service in the Gulf.
The 1980s delivered a devastating blow to the marine transportation industry. The Carter Grain Embargo virtually shut down fleet work. Randy sold Pelican Fleet and struggled to keep his EMS boats online, ushering them as far north as Minneapolis and as far east as Pittsburgh when opportunities arose. Times may have been tough but Randy was never one to let a grain embargo or slumping economy dictate his future. Instead, he diversified his services.
To weather the storm, Randy chartered customer vessels and crewed them with his own employees. He also turned his attention to transporting liquid cargo—a decision that would virtually reshape the company. Landing work from Dow Chemical, Union Carbide and other leaders in the liquid cargo market not only kept Randy’s boats busy, but quickly increased the need for more horsepower.
The 90s began a defining period in the history of Eckstein Marine. Demand for chemical towing was high, enabling Randy to expand his fleet to more than 30 vessels. EMS launched a fleet remodeling program in 1993 to upgrade all of its boats at the rate of one boat per month. A few years later, the company initiated an aggressive refurbishing and construction program. By 2000, EMS began acquiring boats to strengthen its fleet.
Throughout his more than 30 years as a business leader, Randy was steadfast in his belief that motivated crews were the key to his company’s success and, in keeping with that philosophy, he worked hard to make his employees an extension of his family. For Randy, the company’s growth and reputation for excellence were a direct result of the crews who moved his customer cargos around the clock. Randy also looked to improve the environment aboard his vessels by making them comfortable and home-like for his crews, and became one of the first transporters to add satellite TV on his vessels.
When EMS joined forces with Marquette Transportation in March 2007, Randy Eckstein experienced what many would call a life-changing turn of events. As founder of EMS, now known as the Marquette Gulf-Inland unit, Randy was presented with the opportunity to combine the company he’d nurtured with the business his father Ray began, now headed by his brother John.
For Randy and his employees, the Gulf-Inland unit has never wavered from its “extended family” culture. As this part of Marquette continues to grow, as its fleet further expands, Randy’s commitment to the people who made EMS a force of nature will become a legacy of pride and respect. But Randy and his brainchild aren’t stopping there.