About Us

The Columbia Group of Companies was founded in 1990 with its successful all-water container barge service, Columbia Coastal Transport. The company began with one service operating between New York and Boston. Thirty-three years later, the company is recognized as the premier container barge feeder operator in the U.S., and the greenest and most efficient mode of container transportation available today.

Under the leadership of Bruce Fenimore, CEO and Owner, Columbia Coastal continued to expand its reliable weekly services all along the Atlantic seaboard, connecting multiple US ports. The company also gained expertise in handling project cargo, government and military cargoes.

In 2016, anticipating the need to service the influx of cargo due to the increase vessel sizes and the potential inability for some ports to handle the larger vessels, Columbia partnered to build the Columbia Freedom, a 900 TEU barge, built for container on barge feeder services.  The addition of the Columbia Freedom helped to upgrade the overall fleet and positioned Columbia to capitalize on the changes in cargo flow to the market.

Presently, the company operates three US-flag barges engaged in services in the Mid-Atlantic and Chesapeake regions.