Laing International was established by Shirley Laing at Washington Dulles International Airport. Shirley worked for several different customs brokerage companies, the last one being Merchants Customshouse Brokers Inc. Merchants was in deep financial trouble and were going out of business. Shirley immediately reached out to her banker to secure a loan to start her business. To keep the same phone number, she used some of that money to pay Merchants’ debt to the phone company so that she could keep the same phone number so that many of her customers knew.
The Baltimore, Maryland office was established to service clients in the ocean port of Baltimore and Baltimore Washington International Airport.
Laing International was officially incorporated.
Shirley opened an office in Charleston, West Virginia, to handle a few clients. Within a short period of time, a small courier company called Federal Express asked if she would handle their shipments arriving in Charleston, West Virginia. She gladly took on the challenge and for about four years delivered small packages to customers in western West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio until 1985 when Federal Express took over.
Laing International weathered many storms throughout the next decades, starting with the rise and fall of the Dotcom industry.
The tragic events of September 11, 2001, impacted the company, but we pushed through.
We navigated the financial crash of 2007-08.
U.S. Customs embarked on an ambitious process to update their legacy computer system and processes. Processes went from reams of paper with human interaction to allowing computers to target high-risk shipments. This led to the elimination of port permits and created one national permit to operate in all ports of the United States in 2023.
The shutdown of the world due to COVID-19 was one of the biggest challenges of modern times. Our Washington Dulles office employees continued coming to the office and working throughout the shutdown, while our Baltimore office started working remotely from home. This obstacle showed us that we could persevere and work remotely for a relatively long period of time.
Since our beginning, Laing International has been able to adapt to each major event, which has helped lead us into the 21st century.
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