Trailer Bridge names Caribbean trade veteran Charles Gittens as CEO

Trailer Bridge has appointed Charles Gittens as chief executive officer effective Nov. 2, handing the Jacksonville-based Jones Act carrier's top job to a Caribbean trade veteran as the company concentrates capital on its ocean fleet and Puerto Rico service.

The company announced the appointment Oct. 26. Gittens succeeds Mitch Luciano, who departed Oct. 1 after leading the carrier since 2015 — a seven-year-plus tenure that Trailer Bridge's announcement did not explain, and the gap between Luciano's exit and the naming of a successor left the CEO seat formally unfilled for nearly a month.

Who is the new CEO?

Gittens brings more than 30 years of transportation and logistics experience, including leadership roles in Caribbean shipping, commercial strategy and business operations, according to the company. Most recently he served as president of trade at King Ocean Services, overseeing operations across the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and the Eastern Caribbean.

Before that, he was president and chief commercial officer of Seacor Island Lines. Trailer Bridge credited him with growing revenue by 115% during his tenure there while expanding services and improving operational efficiency — a figure the company supplied without publishing baseline numbers, so the absolute scale of that growth remains unclear.

"Charles is a valuable addition to Trailer Bridge, combining extensive industry expertise with proven commercial and operational leadership in the Caribbean trade," board chairman Eric Fabrikant said in a statement. "The Board is confident in the trajectory of the business, and his experience, together with the strength of the existing team, positions Trailer Bridge for long-term success."

What is Gittens walking into?

The appointment lands mid-transformation. Trailer Bridge sold its domestic logistics division in 2025 and is now plowing resources into its core ocean transportation business. The concrete numbers behind that pivot:

• More than $9 million invested in upgrades to its roll-on/roll-off barges
• New onboard generators designed to expand refrigerated cargo capacity
• Enhanced fleetwide monitoring technology
• New long-term partnerships covering terminal operations and tug services

That $9 million barge program matters commercially for shippers moving temperature-controlled goods to Puerto Rico: added reefer capacity on a trade lane served by only a handful of Jones Act carriers can tighten or loosen the refrigerated spot market depending on timing.

Gittens signaled continuity over reinvention in his first remarks. "I am excited to join Trailer Bridge and work alongside a team with an excellent reputation for customer service and a commitment to the markets it serves," he said. "The company has a well-established position in Puerto Rico, and I look forward to building on that foundation and working closely with customers and partners to support the continued growth of the business."

What does the company actually move?

Trailer Bridge was founded in 1991 by Malcom McLean, the transportation pioneer credited with containerization itself. The carrier operates roll-on/roll-off and lift-on/lift-off barges on the Puerto Rico trade, carrying containers, vehicles, heavy equipment, oversized freight and breakbulk cargo.

For shippers and forwarders on the Jacksonville–San Juan lane, the leadership change comes with no announced shift in service patterns, capacity or pricing — the stated strategy is growth on the existing foundation. What the announcement does not address is why Luciano left, how the logistics division sale is progressing, or what share of the Puerto Rico trade the carrier now holds; none of those figures were disclosed.

The trajectory, on the record, is expansion: fleet upgrades, terminal partnerships and a CEO hired for commercial growth. Whether the 115% revenue-growth record repeats on a Jones Act lane with a constrained competitive field will be the test Gittens faces from November onward.