Our Story: The HermesLines Journey
Picture scaling your e-commerce business, orders flowing in daily, customer expectations rising – and then watching it all grind to a halt because of logistics. That’s exactly where Rasmus found himself in 2021, staring at his computer screen at 3 AM, trying to explain to yet another angry customer why their order was delayed.
His e-commerce store was becoming a nightmare. Every morning brought new surprises: pages of confusing surcharges that ate into margins, packages stuck in warehouses with no explanation, and customer service representatives who seemed to vanish when problems arose. The breaking point came during Black Friday when he discovered, right in the middle of his biggest sales season, some more fees that his 3PL provider had slipped into his bills.
“I remember looking at my logistics bill, seeing all these mysterious charges – handling fees, peak season surcharges, dimensional weight adjustments – and realizing I was paying almost double what I’d been quoted,” Rasmus recalls, “My business was growing, but these unpredictable costs were making it impossible for me to scale.”
Frustrated and looking for solutions, Rasmus began sharing his struggles with his network. That’s when he connected with Niels, who had spent years inside the logistics industry and understood exactly why these problems kept happening. Niels reached out to Lars, a business connection from his university days, and together they saw an opportunity to fix a broken system. Over late-night video calls they discovered they weren’t alone – thousands of e-commerce owners were struggling with the same problems. They shared stories of complex pricing structures designed to confuse, bills filled with unexpected charges, and the constant anxiety of not knowing what their logistics costs would actually be each month.
Instead of accepting this as “just how things work,” they decided to build what the market so desperately needs: a 3PL service with completely transparent pricing. Niels’ insider knowledge of logistics operations revealed exactly where traditional 3PLs were adding unnecessary costs and complexity. Together, they stripped away the confusion, eliminated the hidden fees, and designed a pricing structure so clear that any business owner could understand it at a glance.
“We looked at traditional 3PL pricing and thought – why does this need to be so complicated?” Niels explains. “There’s no reason for all these hidden fees and surcharges except to confuse customers and pad profits. We knew we could do better.”
The result? A logistics platform that finally makes sense. Every cost is clear upfront. Every charge is explained. Every price is competitive. Because we believe you shouldn’t need an accounting degree to understand your logistics bill, and you shouldn’t have to be a major corporation to afford quality fulfillment services.
Today, from our headquarters in Ohio, we’re helping e-commerce owners like you focus on what matters – growing your businesses – while we take care of the rest. Because we’ve been on both sides – running an e-commerce business and working inside the logistics industry – we know exactly what you need: transparent pricing that you can actually budget around, real-time communication that keeps you informed, and rates that work for businesses of all sizes.
That’s why we chose to name ourselves after Hermes, the Greek god of commerce – because just as he guided travelers safely to their destinations, we’re here to guide your products reliably to your customers, every single time, at prices that make sense.
Ready to experience what a 3PL should have been like all along?
