Violet Bifulco is in her second year of working full time with her three cousins, Umberto IV, Gennaro and Umberto Joseph.

“It just feels so right,” Violet said as she reminisced about her childhood. “Some of my best memories are being with my older cousins as we ‘worked,’ but I thought we were just having fun. From working on the farm picking beans and packing vegetables to my favorite thing, driving the forklift in the cold storage, I could not wait to go to work with dad. 

"As I got older and saw my cousins taking on more responsibilities I wondered where I would fit in," she said. "During my summers while I was in college at Rider University, I spent a lot of time at work learning all aspects of our families’ businesses. It was not until my dad went on vacation and I sat in his seat that I found my sweet spot. I realized how much I loved the sense of accomplishment of setting up the loads for UGM Transportation, arranging the drivers and receiving the POD (Proof of Delivery). Mission accomplished.”

Violet graduated Rider University in 2023 with a bachelor of science focused on supply chain management. After careful consideration of the inbound product to the cold storage, 20 percent was break bulk, which UGM Transportation did the hauling and 80 percent was arriving on containers, which was totally outsourced. With Violet on board, UGM was poised to expand its services and add container drayage to the portfolio. After several meetings with custom brokers, intense research, permits, insurance updates and chassis purchases, UGM Drayage was up and running.

Bobby Petronglo, operations manager, explained, “We are a service provider and UGM Drayage gives Bifulco’s CS the ability to monitor (GPS tracking on all chassis), manage and expedite our receiving procedures which is not only a benefit for our CS but especially for our storage customers.”

Mickey Bifulco stated, “I am very excited that my daughter is working along side me. I continue to teach her as much as I can from experience I have gain through the years. Violet has proven herself to be a capable addition to the many services that we provide. Violet is looking forward to continuing and expanding UGM’s Drayage Services and appreciates all our customers continued support. We have 12 Genset plugs in our yard to maintain container temperature and we will be installing 12 more this summer.  We currently have 27 chassis and we have 15 more ordered which will give us over 40 chassis when the Brazilian mango program begins in September.”