“We are a business of ‘characters,’ and David epitomizes character in every sense of the word”

says Bruce Springsteen’s Production Manager, a recipient of this award himself, and Bernstein’s longtime client and friend, George Travis.

Bernstein was freight forwarded himself in Philadelphia in 1957, the fourth of five kids. He’ll tell you he was born into the moving business: His grandfather David, who he was named after, started in a horse and wagon. In the 1930s his dad’s oldest brother, Ben, founded Quaker Moving and Storage Company. “My Dad and his five brothers worked at Quaker full time and his sisters worked for the company part time, so clearly, moving things from point A to Point B is something that is part of my DNA,” he says with a laugh. Parents Stanley and Charlotte were tough, smart, and hardworking. Bernstein took piano lessons and played clarinet in the school band, but like all the other kids on the block, he was drawn to rock and roll. His oldest brother, Joel, was drawn to it as well, playing guitar. More importantly, brother Joel became a professional photographer whose career in rock started with a great shot of Joni Mitchell in 1968 at Carnegie Hall. Mitchell was impressed with Joel’s work enough that she introduced him to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, (CSNY) who hired him. In 1970, CSNY played a show at The Spectrum, in Philly. That night, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills came to the Bernstein house and made a notable impression on the then seventh grader. “They got to our house after 1:00 a.m. and I stayed up the whole night till dawn with them and my brother. And my first ever ‘job’ in this business was carrying Stephen Stills’ guitar when they finished playing at sunrise.”

Still to this day, Bernstein believes the largest logistics project he worked on was the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. It involved over 100 countries and would provide the skillset necessary for him to eventually have a Rock-it Cargo footprint on six continents. Everything from bobsleds to horses to Heineken beer was shipped. There were plenty of stressful moments, like when the West German volleyball teams’ uniforms got lost and then found by Rock-It at the last possible minute. On top of all that, there were terrorist threats causing extreme security protocols making everything else thorny. “Bringing in the guns used in the shooting sports got complicated,” he states.

Source: https://plsn.com/articles/parnelli-spotlight/david-bernstein/