50 Years in Trucking with Steve Crawford
This week on Industry Insights with Route Consultant, we sit down with Steve Crawford, a veteran in the trucking industry with over 50 years of experience. Steve shares his journey from growing up in a trucking family to becoming a successful entrepreneur in the logistics sector. He discusses the evolution of the trucking industry, the challenges faced, and the importance of adaptability in an ever-changing market. Steve also opens up about the personal and professional milestones that have shaped his career, including his passion for music, overcoming bankruptcy, and the significance of investing in people. Don't miss this enlightening conversation filled with real-world strategies and insightful anecdotes.
About Steve Crawford
Having grown up in the trucking business, Steve Crawford has not only created a living in the FedEx Linehaul space for the last 30 years, but he has also found meaning in helping others along the way. From a pivotal moment in which someone helped him, to the daily employment he provides his drivers, Steve has found success in both trucking and humanity. Steve was recognized by FedEx as Entrepreneur of the Year in 2010, and through his trucking experience, Steve has found that his true calling is helping others.
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[00:00:00] Welcome to Industry Insights with Route Consultant, your front row seat to the fast moving world of logistics and beyond. Each week, we bring you game changing insights, real world strategies and fresh perspectives to fuel smarter investments and build stronger businesses. Join us as we sit down with expert guests to explore emerging trends and pressing topics across a wide range of industries.
This is industry insights. Uh, we have Steve Crawford here in Houston. It is a pleasure to have you, Steve. It's great to be here. Yeah. To talk through your story and learn all about it. So, oh, what do you wanna know? Well, let's start at the beginning. So, you know, I know you've been in trucking for a long time, but how did it ever come up?
Was this something that was in your family? How'd you find it?
Yep. My dad was in the trucking business. Okay. And actually dad was a, uh, inaugural member of the Teamsters Union in 1935.
Oh wow. Okay.
And, uh, spent 22 years as a driver, then went into management, had [00:01:00] the chance to get his own company. And, uh, in doing so, um, I, I grew up in northern South Dakota.
He was back and forth between South Dakota and Minnesota. So I basically grew up in Aberdeen, South Dakota. And a must. Much of my childhood was riding in a truck with my dad. Okay. And learning about the industry and, uh, how, uh, I actually drove a truck before I drove a car. It's just on the, on the highway.
Sure. But I mean, my gosh, keep in mind, in the Western South Dakota, there's more collars than there are
people, so Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's the first thing I ever drove as a tractor, so, okay. Right. So it's similar, but Yeah.
And when you grow up in an agricultural area that has a big influence on you. Yeah.
And uh, there's probably more that we can talk about that later, but the, uh, um, either your farmers, somebody in your family is farmers, or your friends are farmers, so you kind of have that. Uh, mindset of get or done type thing. Yeah. And so that's the way that I grew up. And then going through high school, uh, my dad's health started to fail.
So by the time I was a senior, I was a little bit ahead of credits. Mm-hmm. [00:02:00] And so I was getting outta school at noon to go to work. Oh, wow. And then when I graduated, um, I. I, I like to tell people college was the best semester of my life because I was going to a school where you could be a teacher and dad's health progressively was getting worse.
And I did spend 18 months playing in a rock band. Oh, wow. Okay. Had that in my background. Well, let's
just pivot to that. So have you played anything since then, or was that the, was that the best 18 months of your life?
I can't
remember.
Yeah. Sounds about right. Yeah. You know, no, the, um, it was, it was fun to do that 'cause music is a big deal to me.
Okay. But the school that I was going to was a, um, a teacher's college. Mm-hmm. And at that time, you could make five grand a year teaching school, you could make 10 grand a year driving trucks. So you don't have to be real smart to figure out that that's a good move. And no, on the music thing though, I still play some and I just do some like solo type things and whatnot.
Okay. Just. You know, more for enjoyment Yeah. Than anything. But, uh, my hobby is going to concerts. I Okay. You know, I've, I've [00:03:00] got a lot of 'em. I'm probably one of the few people that can say this. I saw Janis Joplin in concert. Wow. That I'm pretty old. Yeah. That's awesome though. Yeah. But, but music has been such a big part of my life and, uh, but with the things I learned with my dad mm-hmm.
Were some of the core. Things that you not only measure trucking with, but probably measure your life with. Mm-hmm. But you gotta be careful to not go too far with it. For example, we hear a lot about efficiency.
Yeah.
And that's great. But then it's like, when I'm mowing a lawn, can I get done in 20 minutes?
Well, what happens if it takes 22 minutes? You know? It's not the end of the world, so you gotta be careful not to apply everything to your life.
Yeah, yeah. But
yeah, I, you can honestly say I grew up in the industry.
Okay. And was he driving? For FedEx or was he like external? He owned his own company. Um,
FedEx did not exist back in those days.
Yeah. Um, he, well the company that he drove for was an LTL company out Minneapolis and they got absorbed me into somebody else. And then so he started, and again, in the LTL business and it was highly regulated by [00:04:00] the Interstate Commerce Commission. So you had designated authorities and you could only work in certain areas.
And, uh, and so dad, uh, I was probably about 26 at the time, had the opportunity to sell the business and the writing was on the wall, so to speak, that, you know, the small company. In a small, rural area. Mm-hmm. They're just, it's not gonna be viable.
Yeah.
And uh, he was at an age where he could cash in, take the, um, take, you know, that was gonna be his retirement.
And so I went to work for the guy that, uh, bought him. And, uh, um, I ended up moving from Aberdeen to Sioux Falls. Spent nine years there and, um. You and with success comes a certain amount of failure.
Mm-hmm.
I had to go through bankruptcy in 1988. Okay. 'cause I made some dumb decisions.
Yeah.
Don't we all?
Yeah. The
um, and so, uh, we moved from Sioux Falls to St. Louis and I got a job with, um, Roberts Express, which is now FedEx Custom Critical. Mm-hmm. And I was a recruiter for them. Okay. And again, I saw the people that I was recruiting becoming financially wealthy. [00:05:00] Mm. And I don't have a college degree, so I couldn't even get advancement.
I, I, yeah. I probably tell people I have a PhD, public high diploma. Yeah. And, and so we, um. Uh, I saw these people becoming very successful as contractors, and so I res, I resigned and said I want to be a contractor. Mm-hmm. I don't want be a corporate employee anymore. And I did that, uh, well, I started my business on my own ownership in 1991.
Okay.
And then roadway? Uh, yep. Owned, um. RPS. Yep. And, uh, and they owned Roberts Express too. And so I went over to RPS in 95, and of course that became FedEx in 99 or 2000 or something like that. So I, um, this June will be 30 years that I've been in this segment of it, but, you know, really in my entire life has something to do with transportation.
Your contractor Id must be an early one. Yeah.
It's, it's pretty low.
Yeah. That's awesome. Those are, those are rare to see these days. You know, that's the, there's not as many of the old guard that have still maintained and been successful to this day. I mean. You know, there's been so much [00:06:00] change in the last 30 years, so.
Well, and a lot of the, I, I know of two people that have numbers lower than mine. One is, uh, actually the son who's about my age is running the business, but his dad, uh, well actually his number is lower. His dad had started the business, uh, up in the Chicago area. And then a fellow that I just bought out back in November, he had a badge number that was, you were
trying to eliminate the lower badge numbers.
I understand. Yeah. Get him outta my way. Yeah, yeah. Be on top. Uh, that's fantastic. But. Steve, what is it that keeps you going in trucking after 50 plus years? Well, after
50 years, why do I keep going? It's really the motivation of, when you call it success accomplishment. Even back in the day when I was driving, when I unhooked from my trailers, I have accomplished what I was supposed to do that day.
So we get, you can get satisfaction from this business, uh, even you're just giving your own feedback. But it's satisfying to know that you accomplished today what you were supposed to do.
If you think back on those really early days of, you know, RPS to FedEx, what was life like as a, you know, were you just [00:07:00] running the, the one run just purely owner operator at that point in time, or did you have additional runs?
I, I just had one truck. Mm-hmm. And in those days where we had linehaul and P&D yeah. Included the trailer spot. So I started actually as a P&D contractor with a tractor. I never had small vans and just started with one and then slowly this, that and the other thing. And my manager at the time, um, and this is back in the days when you could really have good, solid conversations and didn't have legal in the way and all that.
Yeah. And we just talked about what does the future look like? And it was gonna be a good move for me to move over. To Linehaul. And then, so by 1999, I had three trucks. And then by 2006, uh, you know, maybe it was seven, I think, or yeah, I, I remember, uh, in 2007, no, excuse me, 2006 we went from six to seven trucks.
And then, uh, fortunately during that time, um, the, the way FedEx worked while I was RPS of course, at the time, but they were taking a lot of market share away. Mm. From [00:08:00] UPS. Mm-hmm. And, uh, you know, so as the business grew, we had to go through a lot of, you know, changes, if you wanna call it. I don't know that it was intentional that, uh, RPS and then FedEx said we have to change certain things, but the market kind of dictated it.
And if I kinda just go through it real quick. Yeah. First of all, when RPS started, our competitive edge was price, because nobody, there was UPS and there was a post office and that was it. So roadway at the time was probably the only company that could take on. Uh, UPS. Mm-hmm. And so, but that was based on price.
Yeah. And then, um, service became important and because I remember in 1999, the goal was to have 99% service, and then it went from that to being, um. Uh, we'll, we'll call it market share. Uh, the, the, the network, whatever. Yeah. So it really, um, service was still important, but you really were, you know, how, how big, not how big we can get.
Yeah, getting bigger is important, but it was really, [00:09:00] um, I. You know, j just the, uh, market share the big term, uh, a big part of what they were looking at. And then it moved now to where we're similar to a utility. We are so accustomed to overnight delivery in America, whether it's us, UPS, Amazon, whatever.
Mm-hmm. And, uh, when you get up in the morning, you expect the water to work, you turn on the lights, you turn on the internet, it's there. We expect our package to be delivered. So right now, this service. Expectations are different today. Mm-hmm. Than when I first started. And the key thing is, is that if you're not willing to adapt to what is today, you're not gonna be long in this business.
Yeah. And I think that's, you know, I think that's key in any industry, but in, in this one in particular is there's just so much change and so much kind of aggressive movement to be ready and flexible and adaptable with what the market demands, what clients demand, that if you can't change, then you will fail.
And I think. You know, it's a testament to you that the fact that the market has changed so much over the years and you've been able to keep up with it and still be successful, that's not easy to [00:10:00] do at all.
Well, and I think it boils down to your outlook, because already today with these meetings that are going on, mm-hmm.
I've talked to other TSPs mm-hmm. And I've talked to some vendors. The reality is, is we're gonna be disrupted. Ai, for example, is a big deal. Yeah. You can be the disruptor or you can be the disruptee. Take your pick.
Yeah.
But to to avoid it is not gonna do you any good. Yeah. You can't just close your eyes.
Right. You
can,
but it's not gonna work for long. It's not gonna work well. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. So. What, when you're thinking about how your business grew though, over the years, you know, was there an inflection point where you realized you couldn't do everything on your own and you had to start building kind of back office and more support?
Yeah, there was, and um, I think I arrived at it and kind of call it a backdoor method. Mm-hmm. And that while I was driving, still have a lot of time to think and everything, it's like, well, if I could get up to whatever, and one of my first whatevers was seven tractors and we were doing a lot of trailer spot work along with Linehaul.
Mm-hmm. Seven tractors. 12 drivers, that was gonna be enough for that. I could [00:11:00] not be in the truck all the time. Okay. Yeah. And I, you know, so when we had all that going on, I was my own relief driver. Somebody's on vacation. Yep. Calls in sick, I could jump in the truck. But it took for me that my numbers were as, I had to have that amount of.
Call it critical mass or whatever to make it work. Well, then a lot of times we like to think that our growth is from, um, you know, is linear. This way it's really kind of stair steps, because once I got to where I needed an admin person
mm-hmm.
Well, I might as well have 14 trucks as as Yep. Seven or 10 or whatever.
And so incrementally we grew and uh, business was strong and FedEx was taking more and more market share. But it was in 2000. I started the conversation in 2012, and in 2013 I acquired runs. Well, a actually, there was a, another fellow in St. Louis that was failing and I was able to help him out, just give him some going away money.
But other than that, um, I, I expanded in 2013 by, um, purchasing a guy that was retiring in Ohio.
Okay. Yeah. And then at that point you [00:12:00] finally got off the truck, or were you No, I Could you ever pull yourself away? Truly,
yeah. In 2018. Okay. Wow. I let my physical expire. Okay.
On purpose. That's, that is the official, I will get rid of this and maybe I won't drive in a truck anymore.
It's like either
I, well, even before that. Mm-hmm. The thing that I would remind everybody of, including my wife, is that I can drive one truck. One shift. So if you want to, if you're scaling any kind of a business, you take a guy that starts a restaurant, uh, or whatever, he can do everything himself for one location.
Mm-hmm. But whether you scale to two or to 22 or 2200 of whatever it is that you're doing, you've gotta put things together so that you can trust other people and you have systems. Systems and processes is what makes this work.
Yeah.
I was fortunate that in my, uh, career growing up with dad. We were highly regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission.
So some of those practices and processes that they had in place then [00:13:00] still make sense now.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it, it's one of those things where people, just as an entrepreneur, you just keep trying to do more, juggle more and think that you'll just resolve everything. But yeah, at a certain point there has to be.
Process and technology that you build in so that, because you can't juggle everything forever, you're gonna drop something.
Well, and you mentioned entrepreneur, do you know the definition of an entrepreneur? It's someone that's willing to work 80 hours a week for themselves so they don't have to work 40 hours a week for somebody else.
It's, you know, that's very true. Yeah. And I,
I did a lot of 80 hour weeks Yeah. When we were getting things going.
Yeah. It's, it's a, a building process, right? Yeah. So, you know. What was the kind of size wise, the, the largest you ever got? Location and number of runs?
Well, it's actually where we are now. I keep, I keep go there.
There's the, um, several friends of mine in the industry so that they, they've got wagers on in Las Vegas. This Crawford's ever really gonna retire, you know, you know, die ain't gonna happen, you know? I see. Well, I'm gonna slow down. See me slowing down would be to work 40 hours a week instead of [00:14:00] 60. The um.
Uh, well, and, and the, the thing really with, with all that, what's the size? I was, I had sold my St. Louis operation.
Mm-hmm.
And, um. We had di dipped down, but then COVID came along and there were some opportunities and, and then a fellow that I knew was selling, I had great financing for it, so I bought and sold some things that I had in other areas and then, okay, I'm pretty content.
And then a fellow 90 miles away is gonna retire. And it's really hilarious. 'cause he is younger than I am.
You know, he's the, he's a smart, you need to be talking to him.
He, um, and so I just started a, uh, I made an acquisition this past November. It's just, what, five months ago? Yeah. And, uh, so that's put us up to, we're at 53 tractors now, so this is the largest that we've been.
I probably have more trucks than I need. I need to start, uh, you know, pairing back. Yeah. We've got some older trucks that we could get
rid of that time. Right? Yeah. What do you think is the biggest mistake that new contractors make?
I would say for new contractors, their biggest [00:15:00] mistake is not having enough time to really learn the uniqueness of their market.
Even though we're one company, there's so many small intricacies, they have to learn and understand those and understand why they're different. Perfect. And,
and have you focused mainly on solos or teams or whatever happens? Yeah, I had, um, strictly solos. Okay.
I, I did do a little bit of team things and there was a.
Time, and they still do some of this where they call roll rest roll. You could go out you're 10 hours, turn around, come back. Mm-hmm. When business was really strong, we did a fair amount of that. Okay. Right now with business having dropped off post COVID. Yeah. And all the economic unrest that we have right now, or I shouldn't call it un respite.
Uncertainty.
Uncertainty, yeah, for sure. Um.
You know, so it just doesn't make sense to be in that. And, um, some of the other vendors that are here that are, have the software tools and everything, you really have to not just know your numbers, but understand your numbers. You have this longer run and so you know, hey, that brings this much money.
Mm-hmm.
But unless you have a, a truck that's can have, it's a separate auxiliary power unit. Okay? [00:16:00] You're letting that truck idle and you have drivers that, Hey, I'm willing to go out and just be gone three weeks at a time. That's great. But then they come home for a week. Well, if you take the mileage that you got for three weeks, average it over four, you are, you're the three weeks that you're making money, you're really making money.
But then you're not the fourth week. So my average miles. Per week are better if I just focus on the out and back solos, solos as opposed to trying these other, I think everybody will experiment with different things, and this is why you have to know and understand your numbers. Mm-hmm. At some point I.
You gotta know that, hey, this isn't working, and you get out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and I, it's one of those things where you get lots of input, just, you know, FedEx will show you data, you'll get settlement statements, but the difference between data and intelligence is actually, you know, knowing how to apply that data and do something with it.
And, and I think there's a, a step that a lot of people miss of actually understanding their data and then knowing how to apply it for their business to actually make positive moves there.
Well, and I, I really enjoy the events like this, that mm-hmm. [00:17:00] Where we're mingling with other contractors. Mm-hmm.
Because your labor ratio, for example, mine might be different than somebody else's.
Yeah.
But it's just different. He has a different application, he or she. But the, um, you know, if your labor rate for a guy that's running exclusive teams, I shouldn't say labor rate, but your percentage of labor is gonna be different with them as opposed to what?
Mine, if you take somebody that's in, uh. Uh, trailer spots, or primarily in trailer spots. Mm-hmm. Their labor rate completely different and their labor ratio. And so it's not like, well, hey, there's a one size fits all. Yeah. Um, there's industries out here. It take, like you for a McDonald's franchise or Chick-fil-A or something like that, you, it's pretty common from the stores to expect this.
We're unique enough that depending on what market you're in and where, like my expenses in Columbus, Ohio are way different than they are in Roll Missouri.
Mm-hmm.
You know, just.
And, and it it because of that, it, like, like you said, it's so important to speak with other people in that area to know, am I crazy?
Are these numbers [00:18:00] right or are you seeing similar things and, and actually collaborate as contractors and events like this?
Well, and, and for example, um, in Columbus, Ohio. We're looking at it real closely, it's our toughest mar toughest market to recruit at.
Mm-hmm.
And it looks, and, and we always, we're hiring people, they're pretty good, but you know, different company and not other FedEx contractors, just other companies are paying more.
And we've done the analysis, just, it's fresh just this week that if we raise our pay $2 an hour in Columbus. Okay. Some people will say, well, you can't afford to do that. If we eliminate what we're spending on recruiting. Mm-hmm. It's, you know, way more than the $2 an hour, so you might as well give the money to the employee as opposed to giving it to somebody else.
It's a mad company, right? Yeah. Now does that mean I have to do that everywhere? No, but my co, my. Profit margin. My gross margins are gonna be less in Columbus, but I have a manager there that can manage the entire network of four communities. So this one's a little bit less, but if I didn't have it, I'm still paying the same manager, the same [00:19:00] salary to do less.
So you have to go market by market, uh, situation by situation. Um, and it's again, a, again, a solo. That I do primarily at night versus, you know, like if somebody comes to me and says, I'll start nights, but I want to go to a day job, don't start then because I don't have day jobs. Yeah, yeah. I can line you up with somebody that does, but I don't do that.
Well, you know, it, it took me a long time to figure out that, hey, I, I need to understand each market, but collectively, how do nodes all work together?
Yeah. Yeah. And that is. Just the, the thing that's really hard to process always is that E, especially for people who are expanding from their first terminal to their second, is that everything you know from terminal one.
Does not necessarily apply to terminal two. Right. There's, there can be all kinds of different contexts that change the way that that terminal will work.
It's also even the personal side that you're dealing with a, a strictly a numbers cruncher manager over here. Yeah. And this guy over here is maybe a little more, he's service minded.
It's not that, you know, [00:20:00] he's gotta meet his Yeah. Numbers goal and that. But there may be one's more relational than the other. Again, it's, they're different. Mm-hmm. And they're manageable. But you just have to understand not everything is the same everywhere.
Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, you touched on it a little bit, talking about how you have to be adaptable and flexible, but you know, you've seen, I.
A wide change in terms of the FedEx market and contractors over the years. When you're looking at contractors today, what would you say is some of the things that you need to be successful as a line haul contractor today?
I, the, the top is and, and the, and the people that are doing well have done this, you have to let go of yesterday.
Mm.
What we were doing. Five years ago, what we were doing 10, 15 years ago has changed because so much in America has changed. And, and a great illustration that I'd like to give is that, um, in 2018, I went to a trucking symposium.
Mm-hmm. A
really great guy there gave a presentation on recruiting and the data that he had, again, 2018, he said 10 years before, so [00:21:00] that'd be 2008, the average length of haul.
For over the road truckers was 750 miles. By the time you got to 2018, it was 480 miles. I don't have the exact data right now, but it's much shorter than that.
Mm-hmm.
And Amazon primarily is responsible for that. They have put warehouses, meaning product closer to the consumer. And so instead of having an 800 mile run, you may have.
Two, 400 mile runs or four, 200. Yeah. Two, two a four and four of two and whatever it is. So the growth of it is not that all the long haul has gone away, but if you're going to get into the FedEx space, expect to do more of the shorter stuff. Yeah. And, and so, and, and that's one of the things and. That's consumer, um, consumer preference.
Mm-hmm. When I was growing up, you know, our, the Sears catalog was the internet Yeah. Weeks. Yeah. And you got it when you got it. Yeah. And now if you order something and it's not delivered that afternoon or the next morning, we just go crazy.
Yeah.
And because the consumers have expected that well, [00:22:00] like it or not.
We have to meet, we don't directly have to meet consumer, uh, expectation, but if the shippers that we're working with have to compete with Amazon, then we have to give the service that they need. Yeah, and that's why you've probably heard a lot of things about going to six day delivery, seven day delivery.
A lot of people don't like it. Yes, I understand. But when we became a utility, then it's just what, what if you only got fire department service five days a week, or electricity only worked five days a week? Delivery services are considered a utility. And so there's that expectation that none of us had any control over.
But if you don't do it, you're not gonna be here.
Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, that's, it's always gonna be about. You know, what worked yesterday, maybe it'll work today, but you can't, you can't hope and just expect it to work today. Right. You always have to be open to those changes.
Well, I think we have to be open to the change too in that, um, the, the world that we live in, the culture that we live in today, employee expectations is different.
Um, this is probably 2018, [00:23:00] 2019 or somewhere in there. I remember reading an article that said that the average 18-year-old at that time, mm-hmm. By the time they're 40. Will have had 11 jobs.
Yeah.
When I was 18. If I told my dad I was gonna have 11 jobs by the time I'm 40, he'd just kicked my butt. Yeah.
Yeah. But, but the, the world has changed because you stayed closer to home. Mm-hmm. You stayed, you know, the, you know, you maybe move from the farm to the town, which is 80 miles away now because of the internet. I can go job hunting in San Diego or New York or whatever and not leave my house.
Mm-hmm.
And, and that's the reality of
life.
And you can maybe stay in San Diego and work remotely for a, a company in New York. Right.
And, and so, you know, if I was working, if you and I were collaborating on a project, you can send stuff to me overnight. We can do it on the internet, whatever it is. Mm-hmm. And so those changes then employees, drivers will always be looking for more opportunities because they're inundated with.
Uh, information from the internet and whatever. And so, um, you want to try to have your, [00:24:00] uh, retention rate be as good as it can be. Mm-hmm. But when there, there's people like, you know, I'm gonna do this for a few years and I'm gonna try a different career again. Growing up in the sixties and seventies, I was never thought of.
Yeah. Because the opportunities weren't there. Mm-hmm. They're there today. And so, um, but uh, if you take our overall. Driver, I guess you'd call it tenure. Mm-hmm. Take all my drivers and when they started and whatever, um, we're at 1.9 years is the average. That's great. Yeah. But I've got guys been here 10 years and I got people that have been here 10 weeks.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I, I think a lot of those are really good advice for contractors who can get ingrained in their ways, have been here for a while. On the flip side, what would you tell somebody who they're thinking about getting into line haul for the first time? What would, what would you say, Hey, this is something I wish I would've known, or that you should definitely know as you're coming in for the first time?
Well, one of the things is, is to learn and understand how the network, I. Works or operates. Mm-hmm. Um, when I first started, it was probably 18 months before kind of the light bulb went on. It's like, [00:25:00] oh, that's how we do this. And FedEx, the network has always morphed and modified UPS the same way again to how do you have growing, uh, you know, uh, improvement factors, whatever that might be.
And, uh, like right now we're going through this express integration 2.0. That's gonna add some things to Linehaul. This might be taken away over here, new things coming in. And so I would tell people that, uh, well first of all, if you're depending on the location, see if you can talk to others that understand that market.
There might be a great opportunity in Denver. But it's gonna be different conditions that if it was in Albuquerque or Birmingham, Alabama. Yeah. Or, or whatever that might be. Yeah. And uh, and when you get to the more dense populated areas, you know you're gonna have more opportunity. When I say more opportunity, there's more freight moving, but you have a lot more competition.
Competition,
yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I think that's, that's all great advice. And you know, there's just so much to learn. There's only so much you can teach somebody. There's a lot that you just have to [00:26:00] experience for yourself and learn it once you're already in the business.
Well, I agree, but a, a friend of mine, Mike Warman that back in the, uh, St.
Louis area. Mm-hmm. Uh, gosh, this is probably 20 years ago had told me that if you're going down the river in a canoe, it's nice to talk to somebody who knows where the stumps are.
Yes.
Well, I have hit all the stumps, Uhhuh, so if people wanna talk to me, that's fine. You know, because I'll share what I know.
Yeah. It's not that I'm the, uh, only expert or anything like that, but you know, it, it's like, uh, sometimes you get focused on one thing. It's like, yeah, but look at this over here. Mm-hmm. Um, a real hot button for me. Is providing benefits for the drivers.
Mm-hmm.
Um, we do a better job sometimes in taking care of our trucks than we do our people.
And that's just not right. In my book. And, um, so take care of your people. But, uh, you know, there's a lot of different ways to do that. But you know, if you know you, a truck wears out, you can go replace it and you've got a predictable, you know, Hey, at 500,000 miles gonna replace the truck, but the driver that you have can drive the old truck.
You can drive the new truck. So. We need to be investing in our [00:27:00] people as much as we're investing in our equipment.
Your goal is that you don't wear out your driver. You're finding ways to enhance their life. Right. Keep 'em sticky and stay with you so that they can, you know, be a renewable asset for you.
Right. Well, and so as an employer, I cannot expect people to be like me of all my work ethic. Yeah. I mean, you want a good work ethic, but nobody, not everybody's gonna be exactly like me. Mm-hmm. And they're gonna have situations in their life where, um. You know, the, maybe you have to modify something. You used to be like in employment back again, you know, 20, 30, 40 years ago it was take it or leave it type thing.
Now it's, we have to be more, well, let's just say we gotta be more flexible. Yeah. That's probably the way to put it. And, um, I, a story that I can tell you real quick from, um, my time at Roberts Express, they had changed their model to where they had these customers sit. Assist teams in the home office. It was really working great, but we had a young lady working with us at the home office.
Really a good employee, but she just could not get to work on time. I. Eight 30 was [00:28:00] start time and she just could not be there. And so the managers brought her in and said, Hey, you know, we need to talk about your stuff. And she just broke down in tears. I have a 2-year-old, um, single mom, um, you know, the dad had abandoned him, all that.
The only daycare person that she trusted was across town by the time she could get to work. Nine, you know, it, it, she was always five, 10 or so minutes late. No. So their response was, well, let's have you start at 8 45 and say eight 30. They just made a minor change, saved. A good employee didn't have to train a new one because they were willing to make a minor shift.
Now we can't let the drivers dictate, right, the company, but we just had it happen At one of our locations, we were able to hire. Again, a single mom, but she can only work days. And we have a guy that's a, um, a divorced dad and his kids are grown and everything, and he said, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm willing to let her have my job and I'll go to nights.
Wow. I mean, where does that happen? Yeah. You know, it probably doesn't happen a lot, but we, so we've got two happy employees Yeah. Instead of [00:29:00] just one. So, you know, sometimes you gotta modify whether you like it or not.
Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it's playing matchmaker, sometimes it's just. Yeah, being a therapist and, but at the end of the day, that that's what it takes to be successful.
Yeah, that's true. So, uh, you know, beyond just, you know, kind of continuing to grow this linehaul business, you know, where, where's your focus these days? Where do you spend your energy?
Well, when I'm, uh, outside of the business, I'm really passionate about people. Um, I. I got, the thing is, is that, you know, you be the best that you can be.
That is kind of so wore out, but there's just a lot of steps mm-hmm. That, uh, a lot of people are, um, that they, they, they're trapped in a prison of fear. Hmm. And, uh, back in 2021. Uh, young fellow that worked for me, you know, you perform, he wasn't a driver, he was a, um, recruiter.
Mm-hmm.
And his, uh, performance was starting to slip and I had to talk with him.
And about a week or so later, he called me up and says, Steve, I need to take time off. I'm an alcoholic. I gotta go into rehab. Mm-hmm. Well, I started sharing with [00:30:00] him that, you know, there there is this prison of fear and the bars are. You know, pride, fear, guilt, shame. Mm-hmm. All those type of things. And I had explained that to him, but the door is open, you can step out.
And he said one of the most profound things he says, I know there's freedom on the other side of the door, but it's scary. And on this side of the door is dysfunctional, but it's what I know. So. I, and this, my interest in this happened back, really started in 2011. Mm-hmm. But I really have become passionate that, how can I help people get outta that prison of fear?
Yeah. And if you think of it like it's an actual setting, my job might be to take somebody by their hand and freedom is on the other side of the street, and I'm. Walk 'em across the street and then they're on their own. I can't live their life for them, but if I can help them understand that, hey, take that step to get outta that prison of fear.
And I had an opportunity sharing, uh, with a young lady, gosh, this a couple years ago. Um, I. I had the, uh, the requirement from her boss watch these presentations and everything. So someday you're gonna [00:31:00] have to be doing that. And she was, you know, probably somewhere between 25 and 30 years old. And I could tell she was nervous.
So I just started talking to her about this and I asked her, um, I. Do you like butterflies? And she said, yes. And I said, you know, you'll never see the beauty of a butterfly unless it comes out of its cocoon. And she just started to weep. But if you'd see her today, and it's not because of me. Yeah. But she took that step out.
And it's not that I'm responsible or that, that I accomplished her success for her, but really the, at the end of life on my tombstone, if it says he helped me find my way, I, I, that's what God has me here for. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. That's amazing. And I think attribute both to you and probably to the culture that you create for your companies and your teams as well.
Uh, in FedEx and everywhere. Yeah. So, well, Steve, it has been a pleasure to have you here and, and hear both what it takes, you know, what it took 30 years ago when you were jumping in a truck for the first time and, and [00:32:00] what you've built today. Uh, it's incredible to see that you're still building and you're still growing.
Uh, I think many people would be ready to le rest on their laurels at this point, and, and I think it's a tribute to you. But ev, everything you've said here that you're still trying to invest. And your team, this community and, and people and the way that you just talked about around conquering fear. So,
well, I appreciate that and I truly, I love what I'm doing.
Yeah. Steve, if you could describe your leadership style in three words, what would it be? My
leadership style, three words I would say is engagement, um, direction. Yeah. Expectation.
Well, the, the, the last question I always ask people is, you know, is there a favorite book, movie, or TV show you can choose one, uh, that you're watching or reading right now?
I'm gonna go with a book called Greatness. Okay. The author is, um, David L. Cook, and you'd have, you can only buy it online. It's really quite an expensive book. Oh. And it, but it's a great read and it talks about the things that I was saying [00:33:00] before. Yeah. Not, not so much the overcoming fear that is a part of it, but what are the things that it takes to be successful?
Mm-hmm. And with the, the interesting thing is, is greatness on the cover is very small letters and not a capital G because we become great by being less. And when you pour into other people, so he talks about, uh, and again, you gotta read the book on your own, but he talks about what's your focus? What is your passion?
Do you have the mental toughness? And those are the things that allows athletes, companies, whatever, when you focus on those things. And I'll be honest, I read that book. It's a very short book. Yeah. I probably read it a couple times a year. Oh wow. 'cause I have to stay directed. I'm easily
distracted.
Yeah.
And so it helps me with my focus because it's like, yeah, there's, you know, I, I have to follow through on this. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, that's my recommendation. People greatness and, uh. Um, the, uh, uh, the, like I said, you have to go online to be able to get it, but if you just David L. Cook Greatness. David Cook. David fine.
Copy. Yeah. Okay. I love it. It was a good work. Perfect.
All right, well, I'll go check it out. All right, thanks Steve. [00:34:00] Thanks for being here, answering all our questions. Appreciate, welcome us through it. Alright, thank you. Yep.
