Home About Us Transportation Solutions Used Trucks for Sale Vendors Locations Job Opportunities Employees Airoldi Brothers > History of Airoldi Brothers History of Airoldi Brothers Inc. Family-owned and operated since 1938, Airoldi Brothers has grown from humble beginnings to be the largest independent truck leasing company in Wisconsin. In 1938, Angelo Airoldi and his two brothers, James II and Vay, started a trucking company called Airoldi Cartage. James II, initially was a silent partner who developed real estate for a living. He became actively involved when Angelo went off to war. Vay ran the operations while James II was in charge of finances . Because Airoldi Cartage had a valuable LC license giving authority to run any type of freight, the company became successful. The brothers made the decision to dedicate the drivers to their customers and turn the trucks into full service leases. At this time, the Airoldi’s weren’t sure if they wanted out of the trucking business completely. The brothers worked out a deal with one of their customers to run under Airoldi’s authority, so they would not lose their license. This had it’s own challenges, for example often times at 3:00 a.m. customers would call to have their trucks started in the winter months and this responsibility would fall on the owners. It wasn’t until Robert Airoldi (son of Vay) had to get out of bed to start trucks that a third shift was opened. The company never got back into the actual freight trucking business. With the deregulation of trucking, the LC number became worthless. In 1970, the biggest deal at the time for 11 tractors with Warner Continental Transportation was signed. This was considered a large risk due to concerns about being able to make the payments. With the fleet at 70, 11 tractors was a huge account. By 1972, Airoldi Brothers passed 100 vehicles and Badger Truck Center gave us our first fleet discount. By 1982, Airoldi’s fleet grew to 300. Along came the third generation, Jim Jr., Mike and Cheri all made the business their career in order to continue the family legacy. 1989 brought another milestone when Airoldi Brothers Inc joined NationaLease. As the largest truck leasing organization with over 135 members and 900 locations it gives unprecedented flexibility and responsiveness which is among our core values. In 1999, Robert retired and the siblings took Airoldi Brothers to the next level. In January 2001, a second shop was opened on Milwaukee’s north side to deal with the increased demand on the southside facility. Originally built to service 300 vehicles, that location was servicing 575. Three months after the opening of the second location, a customer asked the company to maintain its refrigerated trailer fleet of 400. Six months after, five more service bays were added to the north location. Previous Next The north shop had unanticipated growth a rate that necessitated more support. The volume of demand meant more opportunities and thus a mobile service truck was added. It quickly grew to a fleet of four. In October 2006, Airoldi Brothers moved into a state-of-the-art, mega facility on eight acres in Oak Creek after selling the old location. In 2010 a vendor stated that they were opening in Madison and asked about the possibility of the company renting a few of their bays. With a small customer base in Madison the decision was made to take them up on it. Similarly, growth in the Madison market expanded nearly at the same level of the greater Milwaukee area. This resulted in the need for an Airoldi owned facility. 2o11 continued Airoldi Brothers upward trend with an expansion to the Oak Creek facility of 31000 square feet. In January 2012 a customer asked us about the possibility of a location in Appleton. We opened our Appleton doors in November 2012. The following year 2013 meant more expansion, this time in Kenosha. A previous customer expressed the difficulties of ownership and the corresponding responsibilities and wanted to know if Airoldi Brothers would take over their facility in addition to maintenance and leasing. A day later operations at a fifth location began. Siva a smaller truck leasing company was acquired 2015 expanding our fleet by a further 350 units. Cheri received recognition for her continue efforts by receiving the Milwaukee Business Journal Woman of Influence Award in 2016. Jim Airoldi jr. would follow in his fathers footsteps by being named to the Nationalease board the following year in 2017. Within the next two years growth would continue through acquisition of GTI leasing in 2018 and expansion to an additional location in LaCrosse in 2019. Currently Airoldi Brothers Inc has a fleet of over 2000 units, maintains over 4100 and has 6 different locations and 195 employees. In the 30 years that I have been in this industry I have tried every vendor in Southeastern Wisconsin and nobody can hold a candle to Airoldi Brothers. — Tom A Martino, Executive V.P., Performance Freight Systems. © 2019 Airoldi Brothers 414.856.0508 Go To Top