Mail Delivery services is the oldest department and the reason Linn Star Transfer exists today. In 1986 Linn Star was incorporated in LINN County, IA. It began with three trucks and six employees and its sole business was US Postal Service STAR Route contracts. These facts are the basis for the company name, LINN STAR TRANSFER INC.

A Star Route is a mail route done by a private contractor to move mail from large city post offices to rural post offices. Today, some 13,000 men and women contract to maintain Star Routes in all 50 states, carrying out highway transportation of the mail, in all types of vehicles from small wagons to large tractor-trailer rigs, and supplementing rural carriers at great savings to the Postal Service and the public.

Linn Star Transfer is the largest mail contractor in Eastern Iowa and western Illinois. Today Linn Star has 33 Star Routes and the Mail Division of the company employees 43 drivers to run those routes. There are about 4 hours each week when a Linn Star truck is not on the highway delivering mail.

Throughout the mid 80’s Linn Star Transfer was growing quickly and the services being provided to our customers started to change and develop.

The delivery side first started in 1991 and was based out of the Cedar Rapids area. The office was located within the Truck Repair Shop before it was moved to its current location. Linn Star was primarily a home delivery service and did their first deliveries for Cedar Rapids Sears. It soon became one of the fastest growing segments of the business. Our delivery services were so successful that it prompted Linn Star Transfer to add Waterloo and Iowa City services for Sears. Over the years Linn Star has done deliveries for companies for numerous furniture, office supply, electronic supply and manufacturing companies throughout Eastern Iowa. Our Cedar Rapids Delivery team is one of the few departments that has the skills required for delivering and setting up furniture, big screen televisions, exercise/leisure equipment, and tractors/lawnmowers.

Today our Cedar Rapids Delivery team continues to be a significant part of Linn Star Transfer. It employs 20 drivers/navigators and 4 contractors. They prevail in offering a high quality of service to the I-380 Corridor as well as the Dubuque and Quad Cities areas covering most of Eastern Iowa.

Denver Delivery was opened on April 19, 2007. Denver was opened at the request of GE. It currently runs ten trucks a day and employs 16 people, 12 delivery, 2 warehouse and 2 office personnel. Denver delivery services are unique in that they are only a home delivery service for GE.

Des Moines was opened because of a request by GE to do deliveries in that geographical area. Linn Star was already delivering for Lebeda Mattress Factory from their Cedar Rapids location to the Des Moines area and the idea of opening a warehouse there seemed logical. In 1996 Des Moines was opened with GE as its largest customer.

Today our Des Moines warehouse employs nine drivers/navigators. Even though Des Moines is one of our smaller locations, it is still an important part of Linn Star. The Des Moines location currently does deliveries for GE, Lebeda and Des Moines Ethan Allen.

In the fall of 2005 GE came to Linn Star and asked us to service the Kansas City area with both Home Deliveries and SDS. The Lenexa Kansas facility opened in October of 2005 and operates a 10 truck operation with 4 contractor routes.

Linn Star Kansas has 24 employees servicing all of the greater Kansas City area.

Demand for additional warehouse space in 2007 required us to expand our space by 20%.

In December of 2004 Linn Star took on it's largest delivery challenge. We opened a warehouse delivery facility in Eden Prairie, MN to deliver GE product for both Home Delivery and SDS.

Today our Minnesota Facility is the largest of all warehouse and delivery locations for the corporation. We run 14 delivery trucks which includes 6 contractor routes. There are currently 24 employees at Eden Prairie.

The Minnesota facility does deliveries for GE to all of the Minneapolis area as well as service to as far north as Duluth and Brainard.

In December of 2007 Linn Star had a new opportunity to provide delivery services to Eastern and Central Missouri. This has proven to be our laregest expenasion to date and the results have been fantastic. We began delivery service for GE SDS and Home Delivery on December 1st and currently are running 15 trucks in St Louis and two additional trucks in Columbia. St Louis employs 35 warehouse staff, drivers, mavigators and administrative support people.

We are just getting started in this new delivery area and are expecting great things as a result of this new and exciting expansion.

Omaha was opened opened in December of 2000 at the request by GE to do deliveries in Eastern Nebraska and Western Iowa. Linn Star Omaha operates four delivery trucks from the warehouse and employees drivers and navigators. There are also 3 contractors running out of Omaha as well.

In the summer of 2006 Omaha Delivery moved to a much larger warehouse facility to accomodate the increased delivery demands. The Omaha location currently does deliveries for GE, Lebeda and most recently add furniture deliveries for Ethan Allen.

The Truck Repair Shop is the second oldest department, in operation for Linn Star Transfer. The few trucks Linn Star owned when it was established were out of town all day, 6 days a week. As a result all of the maintenance on the trucks had to be done either at night or on Sunday. Linn Star leased a garage bay from a local company and hired a part time mechanic to maintain its own trucks. In 1988, Linn Star leased a building, hired the mechanic full time and solicited outside truck repair business to supplement the work being done on the company trucks. Linn Star Truck Repair was created in 1989. Our current mechanics and staff bring years of experience and knowledge to our service department and are highly respected and greatly appreciated in the Cedar Rapids area. In addition to servicing our own trucks, which currently is about 80% if their workload, the maintenance team also services fleets of other medium duty, diesel trucks and vans for companies in all of Eastern Iowa.

Even though the truck repair shop is the smallest Linn Star department, with only three employees, it still plays a vital role in the maintenance of our fleet and the purchasing of new vehicles.