$14 MILLION Dollar Trucking Empire; w/Amazon Box Trucks, Car Haulers, Tow Trucks & More (150 TOTAL)!

financially you got to be disciplined you know when people you get a bunch of trucks and they see all the money and they're like oh yeah I have this I have this I have this amount of money [ __ ] could happen where you need that money to float you or keep you rolling when things aren't so well hey if you made a million bucks take 200 000 and keep it us what not and that 800 let it sit trust me right it you'll use it or you'll find a way or it'll benefit you another way big thing you know equipment equipment serious uh drivers serious you know um these are the things that make or break Trucking [Music] this is Damian Shepard with Shepard Trucking you are now watching truck and hustle as well that's right you have to purchase a box truck okay got you so now that all comes together yeah all right so before prior to the sale prior to that as when you were a Salesman you have to have the box yeah okay I always had the box truck so when you did that you said you'd have to pay for that Who provided the box truck at that point you had to buy the Box you had to come in with a box truck got it okay okay now it's all clicking all right so you come in with the box truck they provide the routes but the routes are free and now you have to go ahead and you got any ships with these vendors now you have to buy them so now you have box trucks already that's correct okay so how many boxers do you have two two box trucks okay got you now talk to me about just the logistics and that was that a difficult thing absolutely absolutely you you give up a lot of family time um we made 20 of whatever we sell so there was no set you know salary or anything you don't sell you don't eat there's no sick days there's no days off you work seven days a week you must keep your store shelves full if you're not selling product it's not happening yeah you're not you're not making money and so uh it was it was 11 years or seven days a week how many how many stores did you deliver on your route like oh my God I'd say on a daily average um we see 15 stores a day okay um sometimes on the heaviest 20 25 stores a day okay so as you grew throughout the years that you remained with two box trucks that you start to grow and earn more remain with two box trucks okay they wouldn't allow actually they didn't even allow more than one route we were lucky because my wife grabbed another route okay guys one route was in my name one route was in her name so is it one truck per route is that how it kind of works okay that's correct okay got you all right so you're working with what's the name of Snyder Snyder Snyders of Hanover Snyder's of Hanover is delivering snacks snacks to different stores you got it all right cool so tell me about the business girl you say do it for 11 years 11 years all right and I mean I assume I'm assuming it's a pretty good business if you stick it for 11 years yep why'd you stop doing it um Amazon came okay tell me about that all right so uh after selling snacks forever and you know it's and and snacks is a hard job and a lot of people didn't know it was long days 14 hour days 15 hour days just like Trucking yeah except they're physical right you know one more thing before you were you driving the trucks absolutely okay so you were in the truck and my wife and your wife that's important very you didn't have no employees yet no you and your wife have these towards the end we started I'll explain okay okay okay got you so you you guys are driving these trucks delivering these snacks all throughout Milwaukee Wisconsin area right yep in the Milwaukee area Milwaukee okay okay continue all right so a friend of mine says hey you know uh you know uh Amazon has come in here I said Amazon you know don't they don't they sell books it's like uh no I sell everything yeah yeah I didn't know you know I didn't know too much I didn't do too much Amazon stuff I was always working [ __ ] I had no time for anything family sleep and uh he said uh hey they're looking for box trucks he was like I know you got a couple trucks maybe you can do this too and they had a seminar meeting or whatever and I went to it my wife and I and uh we sat down and uh one of the guys that was running the Amazon in this area called MKE five um he says hey you know we'll pay you XYZ to run Palace to post offices line hall all right I said okay that sounds good to me I'll do something like that and it was third shift okay so we would sell snacks during the day get a couple hours of sleep and run night oh wow all right yeah yes very very very crazy very dangerous yeah absolutely this is before we understood the laws of trucking right so this is a non-cdl box trucks non-cdl box trucks under 26 000. okay gotcha yeah so I said okay Chris we're gonna do the snacks and we're gonna do this too so my wife and I started with two box trucks so we started running two routes and and I started seeing the money and I was like you know diesel then was well it was a little crazy then I I must admit when we first started it started creeping up to four dollars um but it came back down right and uh I said man this is some real good money now that's the beginning this is not Amazon now right right right right right right it's the beginning right so I said wow this this is in 2014. got it okay end of 14. I said wow this is good money so we were working 20 hours a day you know snack stuff plus plus uh Amazon freightfest.com listen y'all November 4th November 4th through the 6th Houston Texas Freight Fest is coming and uh about a I'd say about six to eight months or so in it's time to make a decision okay I had to stop too much yeah or and Go full Amazon or something had to give it was just too much yeah and we're already not seeing the kids um you know already got living babysitter it's just it's just getting crazy yeah so I said Chris well you know what do you want to do here she's like well she said I think we should go full force with Amazon and it was scary right this is new because you've been doing this for 11 years you're right and you and this new opportunity was just fresh correct good now but we don't know it's gonna look like 11 years from now you got it right you got it so you know we're a little worried it's like okay well what can we sell these routes for so over the years we built up the equity in the routes and the routes were worth about 150 000. okay a piece okay so I said okay Amazon's asking us for more and more trucks all right so I said okay well if we sell these trucks I mean I'm sorry if we sell these routes um we can add more trucks and we can we can push them over to Amazon right I said okay well that's what we're gonna do we're going to do that so we sold our routes with sniders all right sold them yeah um so now we have this this cash okay you said 150 000 right 150 000 each so so you got 300 300 okay got it I need to drop a bomb one time I need to drop a bomb two times freightfest.com listen y'all November 4th November 4th through the 6th Houston Texas Freight Fest is coming Houston we have a problem listen I need everybody all my transportation and Logistics entrepreneurs all my go-getters all the money Getters everybody's who's trying to make their life better everybody who's trying to level up everybody who's for this generational wealth to pull up to pop out Freight Fest is gonna be a movie who's gonna be there everybody's gonna be there check out the speaker list it's still growing we still adding Freight Fest is going crazy Houston Texas November 4th through the 6th make sure you grab your tickets the link is in the bio I can't wait to see each and every one of you there let's go so we're like well I'm gonna buy these trucks and we're gonna add more trucks you know and uh we said wait let's not buy them let's start leasing them first because if something and renting yeah because if something happens our money's not tied up how'd you know about that as an option um once you start seeing all the new carriers they had all these rental trucks got you and you see them on the dock and you're like oh they're renting those okay you know you start seeing what the rates are for renting versus buying something new and you're like okay yeah it's a little more to rent but uh your uncontrollable cost becomes controllable because all the maintenance and everything else is covered by them right all right so it's like okay all right we'll start renting so we started renting and uh truck after truck after truck and we started growing fast very very fast okay remember we only been Trucking almost nine it'll be nine years in October yeah would that be yeah that that's a very short time in how fast we grew um with trucks you know yeah everything so um AmStar Amazon started rolling and it was great it was great it was doing the same thing still doing the pallets the pallets of the line hall this one straight from Amazon to a post office okay we had all of Northern Wisconsin we had everything we had the whole Northern Wisconsin soda that was ours got it yeah we're one of the first carriers where the OG carrier in the building got it when we started the doors weren't even hung yet it was it was docks just opened um and so so was this opportunity kind of because Amazon was in an area where there wasn't really a lot of a lot of game you know what I'm saying it's like you guys were the only game in town yeah so you had a great opportunity great opportunity okay and we jumped on it okay it will start okay got it so you start scaling up how many trucks you start scaling up do you scale up to with the with the rentals and yeah and so forth all of a sudden you start looking up and it's like we started with you know we got two and we got the four five six eight and we're 10 12 trucks the first year then 15 20 you know you start rolling into the next year then we started opening new locations for them like in Minnesota where they'll send us out there we would bring 30 trucks out there okay yeah so we would run 30 trucks 30 40 trucks here and we run 30 40 trucks in Minnesota oh wow yeah it was crazy it was crazy okay and this is all within you know a one two three year span a couple of years that's it all right so now you guys have started start hiring yeah so tell me about that process because before you guys would do it by yourselves absolutely where do you find drivers oh that's a learning curve yeah we learned a lot from Amazon and uh Amazon taught us a lot of discipline as well you know as far as times and being on time being punctual being you know being accountable for everything and uh you started getting drivers and you don't know the game yet you know you're in trucking you're like oh like I can drive this box truck anybody can drive this right it's simple right 26 foot box truck is 13.5 feet high like understand you can't go under this bridge because this 10 feet you know what I mean you think you think you think that everybody thinks like that right no sir yeah we were in for a rude awakening um in the beginning a lot of accidents um a lot of problems uh crashes um people you know knocking the tops off of these trucks hitting trees hitting Bridges hitting cars and and you start to say what what what what am I doing wrong you know what am I doing wrong um when we first started there was no safety meetings and all that type of stuff you know you didn't understand that yet right you know it's new we had no no game from anyone we came in the trucking with nothing no no type of understanding or or or the FMCSA we didn't understand who they were and how powerful they were right well we know that it's another government entity no no we didn't know I was a service you know compliance we didn't do any of that logs we didn't let's go you're right get the truck yeah run 20 hours because I can do it everybody can yeah it's not the case okay okay it's not the case and we learned and at this in on the flip side as well Amazon was still kind of in the infant stages of their business so they're grading their you know they weren't grading you as hard as they would grade you now that is correct right that's correct so there's a lot of things you guys are probably able to get away with that is correct back then there was no type of they didn't look at uh your CSA scores or look at anything on the FMCSA they didn't do any of that right that didn't matter to them they're trying to figure it out still themselves correct until FMCSA and the government started looking at them say hey it's a lot of [ __ ] going on with your load on the back of these trucks right what is going on what are you doing to mitigate the problems right and that's when they started their scoring system in their compliance department and got it and making sure you're doing what you're supposed to do uh on on the safety side got it so you might be the reason for those tough grading scores on Amazon I might be separate Trucking I'm one of them I know I'm not the only but I'm one of them so you said you guys grew so big they started sending you out to other places to open up other levels absolutely absolutely when Shakopee Minnesota opened we sent 30 trucks 32 trucks out there still renting still renting still renting still renting yeah okay still written at that time okay got you so how many locations you guys end up opening up for them just two two because how that went I'll never do it again what happened you you when when when you're doing something so far away you start to lose control you try to appoint someone to you can trust to run that operation and it doesn't go right got it in the driver situation in Minnesota was was nuts was nuts it was hard got you a lot of issues a lot of issues up there but we made it happen um Amazon paid a ton of money you know at the time you know they'll pay you a thousand dollars a day if the truck go across the street got it it doesn't matter it can go two miles with one envelope that's what that's what that Amazon built what we have today um yeah that's that's where we that was the seed money we needed to start Shepherd Trucking got you so how long did you say at the other location before you shut that that down Minnesota we stayed there a year and a half a year and a half yep okay now what about here uh we've been here and we're still here so you still do Amazon now I still do Amazon now okay yep okay all right so you grow with Amazon like you said that's the seed they they got everything started absolutely but as we talked about in the beginning that's not the only thing you guys do so at what point did you say all right box trucks are cool but there's there's other things to do out here what was the inspiration for that tell me about that absolutely so uh about three years in we wanted to start getting into big rigs because um our Northern route started to explode and it originally started with Amazon coming to us saying hey um your Northern routes your big areas your Green Bay your Appleton the high volume areas we're tired of spending you know money on six box trucks going to the same spot if you don't do tractors we have to move those routes to somebody that will do a tractor and I said well we can't let that happen this is our area you know I mean we've been taking care of this area for three years straight you know strong uh one of the best carriers in the building it's like let's go yeah I said Okay um uh I didn't have my CDO I went to the dealer and bought a tractor drove it home illegally okay parked it in my driveway went and took my written test and here in Wisconsin you got to wait 14 days before you can take your road test waited my 14-day wait period took a road test and and got my class A okay after I got my class A I started running routes so you jumped in the truck now as you guys grew were you still driving yes sir so even when you guys started expanding with all those different box trucks for Amazon you guys still drove still drove okay absolutely you were no strangers driving at this point once you get the uh once you get the the big truck the semi truck absolutely all right we're dropping we'll jump in a box truck a semi truck whatever cube truck whatever it took to take care of those routes okay that's that's what made this all happen got you so you jump in the semi and now you're pulling loads for Amazon so what are you pulling for them now this is still line hauls still alive still same line same stuff same stuff okay yep same stuff all right so tell me about how that starts to grow yep so that was our first tractor and after that I said oh well Chris this is pretty good you know we started adding more Amazon wanted more tractors then we started servicing Iowa and we started you know the tri-state area Minnesota started sending tractors there just line hauls because their their Distribution Center MKE 5 was the biggest in the tri-state area at the time right now they're everywhere they're popping up like you know yeah like weeds in the grass they're everywhere yeah and uh so we used to service those from MKE five back and forth back and forth and Amazon rates started to fall because they started to secure a lot of capacity of people that don't understand when they're not making money hmm does that make sense yeah it makes sense a lot of new people a lot of new people that didn't understand that listen you're just shuffling money around you did you make money and they don't understand that but Amazon will use that and they create you know their own market right you know and uh so Wright started fall and we're like oh whoa whoa like what's going on oh well if uh Joe Blow Trucking over here can do it for that why can't you right and you're not they're not comparing Apples to Apples you know I have new equipment I invested in this this is when we're starting to buy trucks now yeah um we have new equipment and we have you know great guys that we pay start to weed out the bad ones the ones that are eating [ __ ] and flipping trucks over and all that you start to learn yeah and those quality drivers cost and Amazon gets to a point where they don't care about what they cost and so you go back and forth with that and I say hey my wife and I talk will say well we have to uh figure out a way to diversify we can't keep our eggs in one basket we cannot do it we cannot allow Amazon to dictate our future yeah I love them don't get me wrong I love Amazon they started us like I said but at the end of the day of their business and I have to keep it business too so I said well we got to start getting these big trucks and running our own Freight outside of Amazon we'll use Amazon as well when the money's right but we need to grow outside of Amazon right right so um it gets scary because you have so much equipment and you're so embedded in their business that when they start moving money around it gets scary because you ought to bank millions of dollars and when they start fluctuating on rates shoot like [ __ ] what do I do here yeah what do I do here you know you can't you can't tell the bank hey I can't pay you because Amazon cut my rates I don't want to hear that right nobody's hearing that that's a fact yeah so it's uh we said okay we'll start getting big trucks and we started Auto hauling too okay so when you get into the big trucks and you start looking outside of the Amazon Freight where do you look to for the first couple loads that you guys pull and so forth sure sure first thing low board Okay jump on low board okay um you can get trailers absolutely okay absolutely when we started Amazon live hauls they had no trailers so you guys already had trailers we had trailers purchasing for Amazon yep yeah we usually run two trailer our ratio is you know two trailers one truck yep and uh that's how we would buy it one truck two trailers okay and keep because Amazon had no trailers then okay their trailer pool was so small they had none in our yard even back then got it got it now it's now it's crazy you're hauling air trailers now yeah got time you gotta have that little arrow on the side that's correct you ain't pulling for Amazon that's correct yeah yeah all right cool so you you jump into uh you go jump on the low board yep jumping a little boy what was that was it it was tough in the beginning but then you start to build those relationships with Brokers you start to build relationships with direct customers um it's it's good to have a a mixture of both you know what I mean people you know you got to blend Brokers with direct customers you gotta always fight for you know that balance you know um so it was it was like uh it was okay you get your set of Brokers that understand that you're here to make the money and uh at the end of the day you can't you know you can't give me a rate that uh I'm gonna break even on you know what I mean right they will try that or they want you to go negative on you know and they have to understand what type of company you are what you stand for you know I mean once you get that relationship understood uh you'll always locate and and have a good relationship with the right Brokers got it so you started with dry Vans dry Vans out there okay any particular customers anything that you guys were able to connect with that were kind like another Amazon that was like not as consistent level okay you know not as consistent we haul it it's it's Amazon that that's where they really get you they're consistent you know what I mean Amazon is consistent and they have now it's different now but when I was going you know when we were doing a ton of Amazon there's never a day a truck comes in and they tell you we don't have nothing for you never right never now they'll cancel yellow while you're on the docket right right you know uh it wasn't it wasn't nothing like that then yeah you know so um I didn't have to deal with too much of that um it was nobody's consistent as Amazon but it's it's been it's been great we have some good customers um we love them they do a ton of work with us and I I couldn't ask for nothing better got it all right so now you start purchasing semis how many semis do you kind of grow to we grow to about 36 semis okay um 65 box trucks yeah and and those 36 you're purchasing all those we purchased these are all bought why are you now purchasing as opposed to the lease model that you use with Amazon what was the difference now we were making enough money where we can control the maintenance and everything else at a much cheaper cost than the dollar amount it will cost on a lease plan with the mileage adding up so it was getting to a point where we start we built this we built this facility yeah and it's like hey you know I had a couple guys that were diesel mechanics and I said hey let's bring them in and we'll do our own diesel mechanics we'll do our own PMs and so on and so forth our brake chain you know our own dlts and everything like that okay all the simple work we'll do in-house okay now anything major we'll do at a dealer you know um but that was the best way to go at that time and I say well and I I feel like that's the best way there is to go you know because there's a lot of different there's a lot of different you know people say different different things right correct correct leasing is the way to go when you want to scale up correct people say buying is the way to go so it's correct correct it is I gotta say leasing is nice when you want to scale up because like I said that uncontrollable cost begins to get a little mitigated because you don't look up and you gotta you need a motor or a you know a transmission or you need this it that that's not a worry for you right you turn it in give me a new truck right you know um so what I did was I I believe in new equipment okay just me anybody else can tell you different I'm fine with that I'm okay with their opinion and how they run their business but for me new equipment all day yeah two people you're gonna pay you're gonna pay the bank or the mechanic I'd rather pay the bank um why why would I rather pay them why would you rather pay the bank consistency yeah new equipment commands consistency drivers love new equipment good drivers do yeah you know and that's a good marketing tool when you're talking with a customer Hey listen our oldest unit is a 2020. you know the chances of breaking down with your load on the back is slim to none and if it does we have our own towing company that will haul another rig to the scene and get you get you going we'll pull out the truck that's got a problem we'll hook up a new one get that driver on the road yeah and uh that's that's the consistency is key in trucking right and you had to have a great relationship with a bang and credit I'm sure that played a big part absolutely absolutely tell me a little bit about that absolutely like like just being able to fight Finance these trucks sure how what's your strategy and because it's a lot 36 units yes or or Finance yes so what's your strategy uh it was uh once once you you have a relationship with one financial institution you'll start to get more you know um in the beginning it's hard because it's not like it used to be you know how people use the word business credit okay you got to be careful with that because it's not like what it used to be business credit used to be you can just go get a tax ID number blah blah blah that's a separate entity now it can build its own credit I didn't look at it Banks don't look at it like that no more they know someone's running that how is your credit how is your personal credit right they want to know that first right because that's going to dictate how you're going to run that business right you know if you're not paying your We Energies bill now what makes you think you don't yeah you got to pay this bill yeah that's a fact so um in the beginning uh it was a little hard you know business but I must say the snack business helped um because they knew I was in business already for so many years and we own those trucks we financed them and we paid them off and you know they said okay we can kind of take more of a chance with this guy okay and uh my personal credit is excellent so they're like okay well let's let's do that you know truck no problem zero down here you go take it zero down go yeah ever since then just name how many we need we got 10 coming next week it's yeah they don't care show us the financials I mean I probably show financials maybe two or three times in the last seven years right they start to know who you are what you stand for how you pay your bills to give you anything you want got you so that relationship with that one institution is key key and it's showing that past performance they they know you run a good business you have good structure set up absolutely to go good to go so everything is zeroed down you gotta put nothing down zero down drill down enough not the first one though first one first one was zero down two zero down because they look at the other stuff that's correct that's correct okay cool then they start learning how you are what you do and it's it's endless from there you know now sometimes you choose to put some money down because you got an older unit that you're going to trade in you'll take that Equity roll it onto the new unit that's your down or you can take a check I'd rather just roll it onto the new unit have a smaller payment and you know maybe you know yeah could you have walked away with 50 60 000 you know whatever on an equity check on the old unit sure but why not just throw that on a new unit and have cheaper payment and have a truck that's you know one third paid for it you know yeah so so how do you look at paying these trucks down because that's a lot of that's a lot to carry in terms of um debt sure so what's your strategy to pay these trucks down sure absolutely I don't pay nothing extra oh you like that strategy I love it pay the payment pay the payment you know why why because I'm out of them in two or three years okay got you that's it right whatever Equity they have in them I'll roll it over to the next truck and and that's that that's that okay new equipment by the time you take over a 12-month span of that old unit that you bought that was in the shop seven times now taking consideration you had to buy a you had to get a rental truck what did that cost you right your down time you know what I mean what did that what loads did you miss you know what I mean and then the cost of fixing these trucks is no joke right it's nothing to have your truck break down as 10 15 000. hmm how much is a payment on one of these new ones two grand crazy yeah two grand yeah now do two grand times 12. you got three breakdowns that cost you fifteen twenty thousand you were paying for a brand new truck that could have been rolling already so every three years you're in something new all time and how much are you usually able to apply to the next set of equipment in terms of for the truck uh usually now this recent one was was real nice because you've seen the equipment Market crazy it was crazy it's double it was crazy yeah we were able to get 80 000 in equity on on our 18s and 19s you know so I was able to roll that over you killed it during this this time around yeah we have 20 20 23s coming and uh we just got four 2023 Peterbilts that just came and but on the flip side though you killed it on the equity in your truck but the other trucks were still expensive as well you know because I ordered them a year ago it's nothing to order the trucks and when they come you can say no I don't want them anymore or you can say yes wow that's game now it's close that's definitely some game yeah so okay so before the inflation I beat the inflation I still got them at 145 Grand a unit they're going for 250 right now unit but that was an intention that was luck that was luck but I always do that luck because I never know what I need and it's so hard to get the new equipment so I always Order ahead you can simply tell them I don't want them they're okay they're fine with that do you have to put it down payment zero you just let them know that you want these trucks in a year and then you're locked in correct to that as long as you commit to 50 you have to commit to 50 that's correct so if I say I need 20 trucks you must at least get 10. okay that's our deal and if and and if for some reason you don't uh uphold your side of the day what would happen to you you're in violation okay okay but in violation with who I mean the bank no no just period just just your word now right okay guys now that the relationship that we talked about is now tarnish because you didn't do what you said you're gonna that's correct your word is bond your word is bond yeah you gotta stick okay but do they but they make you sign off on that though no that's just your word it's your word okay because you said you got to commit to it so you don't really have to now if you're new you're in the game they might make they might sign off they might want you have a you know uh proof of funds and all that type of stuff yeah once they know you they know you and you when she starts thumping big they understand and they respect it wow that's that's dope man that's dope you said you got 10 on the way 20 20 on the way yeah we just we just got nine of them okay so what are you scaling up for now what's going on uh we're just growing yeah we got rid of some old units um earlier this year when when the time was right yeah um a lot when you know we were dealing with all the covet a lot of driver issues and stuff I said well if they're sitting here and they're worth a lot of money let's sell them because our new units that we ordered a year ago is on the way gotcha we'll roll them out gotcha and we did okay and what what are you guys doing in terms of like the the general Freight now what's like your main uh commodity that you are all dry I'll dry yeah we really don't touch any uh Hazmat or anything like that we do pretty I mean we do have uh four reefer trailers um we run uh just some food here and there uh North and back I mean I'm sorry north to south and back um but uh 95 of our business is all Drive Right Drive okay yeah got it and and mostly low but what would you say load board to Direct Customer ratio um I say one-third one-third is load board yep okay gotcha and another two thirds would be direct direct relationships that keeps you guys rolling how has the market been for you guys recently with everything going on I mean we know fuel is up fuels up rates are going down down so how's that impacted you absolutely uh fuel is brutal yeah I can't sit and say uh it's it's nothing but brutal um fuel is very very very expensive but once you build that good relationship with your customers they understand where they need to move with the rates yeah you get the ones that don't want to move and they want to fish for the guys that are going out of business because they don't again understand that they're losing money right um when you get that type of customer you take care of them you know and we have those type of customers they understand hey we gotta we gotta go up ten percent twenty percent you know fifty percent sometimes when we wait too long yeah and uh at the end of the day they understand um some don't you dodge that Freight that's it there you go you dodge it that's oh hey uh we're paying this so sorry we can't do it for that right what what other things are you doing to say to save man because you know it's all about what you keep right absolutely what adjustments have you guys made in this market to yeah kind of uh things going we we have an in-house account here for fuel we're actually going to bring fuel on site here next year um but we have an in-house account that we do a ton of business with we used to do 40 000 a week or so a few of the with them okay and um they give us the steepest discounts because they're like a mom pop correct okay no no no we go there oh okay but it's in our path of got it you know what I mean got it um so they treat us the best because we spend so much um our all our trucks are governed at 70 miles an hour that helps a ton yeah I had I remember when I first started we didn't have nothing governed you didn't understand right and uh I started when I started ordering all these trucks I'm like listen dealership start governing governing all these trucks at 70 miles an hour everything yeah and uh when we did that five grand a week saved saved in fuel wow I couldn't believe it wow I said that's crazy five grand a week I said oh yes this this is what happened this is what has to happen and uh we govern every piece of equipment we own okay yeah okay gotcha what else give me some other things you guys are doing to save oh man what else uh okay what the equipment's always governed uh yeah it is it's kind of hard to to save uh per se um we continue to do the same thing we always do we try not to take lows that are ridiculously far that doesn't they don't compensate for the fuel you know we stay away from those flat rate lows that they don't understand what the fuel cost is uh yeah it's uh fuel is is a necessary evil it's like Insurance all right guys listen before we continue this show I've got to give a shout out to our sponsor and our partner OTR Solutions formerly OTR Capital but listen guys OTR is much much more than just a factoring company they provide so many solutions to help the small carrier not only get in the business but to stay in business and maintain right so you guys have to partner with them and check them out don't take my advice for it talk to their clients right talk to their clients find out what the people are saying everybody will tell you the same thing so make sure you give OTR Solutions a call at 470-900-3338 or click the link in the bio below make sure you check them out and tell them truck and hustle sent you [Music] right uh you gotta have it that's a fact so it's it's just you got to be more mindful of what you're taking okay that's it got it all right when do you transition into car hauling was that the next vertical that was the next okay next thing was car hauling um car hauling uh it was maybe three years ago okay yeah about three years ago now and uh something different um like you said you know you like your niches right yeah I love the niches yeah so try a little something different uh I'm a big car guy I used to race across the country and stuff like that so it was uh it was it was one of those things where I was sitting at the racetrack and I'm like damn a car hauler pulled up and it's like why don't we do something like that you know it's enclosed it was cool Lamborghinis Ferraris and all this crazy stuff coming out and I'm like let's do that right so we bought two car haulers okay two enclosed Kentucky Trailers quarter million dollars per trailer oh nice and uh hooked them to you know 150 Grand Freightliner and uh we started hauling all the Exotics um the classic cars all the Lamborghinis Ferraris you know all the crazy you know million dollar units and uh that was awesome very different business though very different right very different driver as well different driver operator and then different business in terms of how you get free how you connect with these so how did you did you did you purchase the car holder first did you connect with somebody first and know you'd be able to get the cars well throughout the times um some of the exotic cars that I bought personally um are established relationships with all these exotic dealers around here and they knew me and they knew how I was and uh they were like hey you know you know when I was at the track and I talked to a few of them they're like man you should really start doing this because I know you're like you really care about the cars you know right and and so I knew a lot of people first okay then we started hauling them and uh it's it was it was crazy it was it was fun to see you know you got a trailer going down the road with 10 million dollars in it of cars yeah you know and it was fun and you know it's just one of those things that uh I love cars so that that fidget it resonated absolutely what were some of the challenges getting into that business challenges operators always drivers right um the challenge is guys being over the road too long you know um people don't like to be over the road you know nowadays right um old school Trucking they're out for a month facts all right Trucking now they won't go home you're lucky you get a guy for a week that's true you know yeah and uh these guys will be out two three weeks you know and it's and it's kind of hard because you need to wait for cars to come up and you know you kind of gotta Circle them around create a route coast to coast and uh that was hard it was hard on their families and their personal life they were great guys you know great operators just uh just was real hard on their personal life right and uh when you get that it just don't work you know that's you so so these the the Exotics and stuff you're delivering them to like houses houses okay yeah pull 53 feet right up in the house we have to get permanent weight permits all that stuff yeah yeah sometimes we'll meet them at a Walmart or something like that but they had a big enough uh area we would go right to the house okay and and how was the fun on the financial end how was that compared to what you were doing with the general Freight very lucrative okay oh yeah more lucrative oh yes oh yes okay to give you an example each trailer holded about six cars um that car coming out of Texas if it's a high dollar unit uh that car could pay two grand a car and you got 12 Grand coming out of Texas coming to Wisconsin you know what I mean so yeah it was very very lucrative okay okay got you so how many car holes you have you have two you said no we had started we started with two you grew ten so now you got a 10K we opened uh more open haulers um for more of the dealership work more of the hey I don't want to pay for any closed service um so we opened up that Avenue oh you had a different a different rate for the enclosed oh absolutely how much is the difference double double for the include encloses double but as a car hauler still your responsibility to make sure the car is delivered in good condition that's correct so what's the difference the difference is uh it's not exposed to elements um people with their Exotics myself included I don't want to see no rain touch my car no nothing not a rock chip not a nothing you know I want my car pristine I'm picky like that yeah all exotic guys are picky like that yeah they don't they don't don't play that in elements right right now um that's the biggest okay you know open hauler you could get a rock chip that's all on a disclaimer you're going down the road with nine cars I mean a rock could hit it uh Anything could happen right um and so we're like well uh you want to pay for enclosed that trailer is a very expensive trailer right and it's very expensive Insurance that's double what a truck will cost so a freight truck so for it okay so what's what's the number one now you said 2 000 per car 2000 per car is that is that enclosed enclosed okay got you so on open with the open thousand bucks a car a thousand bucks a car yeah and we have four or five units that will go down and back and forth Texas Florida that was our lane Texas Florida and everything in between okay is there a certain season where you like kind of you know pick ramp up with the car snowbirds yeah right okay no birds yep they want to come out of Florida or go into Florida usually um winter time fall busy everything coming out okay of of the north you know and in the summer and you know vice versa okay so so would you say so would you say like so you say the the car hauling business makes more in terms of uh margin than the general Freight business right absolutely okay gotcha absolutely way more way more way more okay but it's a much harder much harder business got to twice as hard gotcha because those cars there's a lot of moving Parts you see those nine car haulers going down the road 10 car haulers listen I've had my problem yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure yeah I had my problems okay cool all right so that's the car haul in we have the general Freight and then you also do the towing and recovery right Towing recovery how are we getting to that absolutely it's just another spin-off of something that we wanted to do and make sure that we can tow our own equipment so uh we went out and bought a heavy wrecker um 750 000 unit to tow our own trucks okay um if there's any issues uh we didn't wait for you know warranty to send a tow truck from whatever state or whatever we'll send out prior to that investment how much had you spent on records uh probably if you've got newer equipment so it wasn't too too bad too much yeah not too too bad um but the time that's not gonna say so why did you see that as in the loads because I could understand you've seen that as a good investment like once you break down a certain amount of time you spend all those money all that money on records like you know we must buy our own we done bought one and paying for it that's correct yes you got it you got it you look at that payment you'll be like hey well let's see if I have my own and I paid this oh that's only four toes a year there you go you know what I mean so you kind of do the math like that okay and uh we just like I said we want to be all self-sufficient in-house and do our own thing okay and uh so you started with one one record one record one heavy record okay and then we had eight small roll backs for cars okay got you yep so so you started off doing an in-house and then you started offering it to the public that is correct how did you did you get any uh contracts with anybody for record like a lot of times you got to get contracts to do on like the terms yeah different places absolutely yep the auction stuff like that uh we would get contracts with um uh none of the city worked that was on our heavy record side yes but not the small car side okay um we had the uh contract for the city buses here in Milwaukee County um and you know just uh keep things moving and and keep our heavy record moving okay is there a lot of politics in in the tow industry absolutely it is right this is worse than Trucking yeah there's a lot of Buddy system a lot of politics Lots you know on what work you get in blah blah blah you know so it's uh it's it's a challenge but hey if it was easy everybody do it right that's right that's right so so with the with the record how much can you can you make like on just like a regular toe like to tow a truck it's like what ten thousand no what's going on no not that expensive unless you're going you know from state to state um but you know if you're doing a recovery or something like that five thousand sometimes you know if you're doing just a regular toe off the road 1000 1500 bucks usually they're going to a dealership or somewhere local right you know thousand fifteen hundred bucks a tow so 5 000 that that person would call you would spend and how much is it costing you to do that I guess if you look at like what's the more what's your margin yeah if you account for fuel the driver everything on that scene yeah that scene will probably cost you anywhere from six to eight hundred dollars okay yeah that's huge margin chess yes yes because the truck costs so much right because the truck closer yeah we sold our first record and we bought a rotator that's the one that picks the trucks up from the side of the road rotates them back and puts them on you know oh that's almost a million dollar unit you know and uh it's it's the the trucks cost so much so you're paying for that equipment yeah yeah that's that's a fact you got to call those numbers for that equipment man all right so that that's the last snitch right the record or is it another one that we're missing that's it on the trucking side the truck inside so we got the car hauling we got the Wreckers uh we got the general Freight how do you manage all these these different businesses because they're all different verticals no sleep yeah I mean do you have people in place that's operating on each one about that yeah you're only good as your team and uh you got to get the right people in the right place um to take care of everything because you can't do everything at once you know can't do everything on your own right um I tried that you know and it it does nothing but create chaos for you personally and and on the business side too you know you can't do everything and see everything and you know so you got to appoint people yeah you know um I started appointing people okay uh to oversee uh things and that that's worked out great so how big is a team now uh office staff office staffing off staff is about six of us in the office okay that's that's not too big that's pretty pretty much uh lean team yep yep and and they're great they do that really okay so you so okay so tell me about like each each vertical so like for the records you have yep one person yep one person for the record okay you know box trucks tractors you know Auto haulers okay yep and like the rest of the businesses yep absolutely okay okay guys here you said there's some other there's some other companies that you have started as well right absolutely what else do you guys got going on absolutely uh our most recent Adventure is uh we just opened our own gun store okay um we just became a federal firearms license dealer um and that's been great that's fun I love guns and cars I love that how difficult was that to to get into that business uh very expensive um it's not like Trucking you can't go and say hey I have good credit you know can you uh can you finance me uh 500 000 worth of firearms you know don't it don't work that way right and there's no business plan Banks honestly don't like to touch that I'm just being honest yeah it's just they don't like the touch gun stuff you know what I mean so um that was all cash that was all cash there I took 1.2 million of my own own cache and open a gun store has it been so far it's been great it's been great great margins on guns too I'm sure not really nah nah 15 okay yeah you're lucky to get 20 on a gun um it's uh the the the accessories is more better of a margin okay and uh it's one of those volume games yeah I look at Trucking as volume too okay not crazy crazy margin on trucking yeah it's not Insurance costs a lot people cost a lot fuel you know it's it's volume got it one truck ain't gonna get it you got it got it 150 that's that's gonna make it work for me no I got it I got it I got it all right so um and and looking at the uh the different things that you have going on so tell me like everything now so you have how many trucks on the road for the general Freight right now yep General Freight we're on about 35 tractors right now okay um 65 box trucks okay um I do lease out some of those units as well um and that's that's for General Freight that's what we run a day I have 10 like I said I got 20 trucks which I already just received 10 of them um so we should be up to back up to about 55 units or so all said and done okay of big trucks big trucks yeah on the on the freight side and uh in the box trucks we have 20 units coming uh October so it should be probably around 85 units on the box trucks okay and how is the least the leasing been working for you leasing is great I love it I love being able to give somebody a chance to do what I do you know what I mean to do Trucking yeah you know um I hand them a new unit um I'm not going to sit and say it's cheap or anything like that it costs but it's your step to get that two years of tax returns to go in and buy your own unit I don't tie them up for five and six years two years 24 months got you that's our least deal okay and I know within that two years if you survive that you can go buy your own truck after that as long as you keep your financials together we also have Shepherd tax and accounting okay yeah so we have a tax farm so so when they when they lease on to you they're they're leasing on to you to purchase or they're no so they're just I do give them the option to buy that unit um at market value after the lease um but I do when I do the leasing they have their own authority they're not running under mine I don't okay you don't do that no I don't know you don't let anybody on to your Authority no I do not any particular reason um whatever they do is my responsibility so they might as well be an employee you've never done it before never okay never yeah okay it works for people yeah yeah I know a lot of people that do it um I'm more protective over my authority um I know what it takes to keep it clean right you know I mean you get at least guy out there he's got a driver now and he doesn't want to drive and he hired this guy and let's say you got 10 guys like that they're rolling trucks hitting this hitting that guess who's Authority that is yeah yours yeah guess whose insurance is going up yours guess who insurance is dropping you that's a fact as a fact I'm fine it can be an employee no I dig it so in talking about insurance and everything with all these different verticals that you have so how does that work with with insurance does it great does it great does it open it again tell me about it absolutely in the beginning insurance was uh it was uh it was uh it was it was frowned upon in the beginning because they're like oh well why are you doing this huh I'm like well for insurance purposes to be quite Frank um no disrespect to any box driver but non-cdl guys or box drivers that are under CDL usually don't drive as well as a CDL driver or an auto hauler usually is a top tier type of driver because he's looking for everything and they usually don't drive as you know they drive usually somewhat better than a regular Freight driver you know what I mean they're more careful more cautious exactly and I'm not saying you know just because of the job correct correct it requires a little more right so I spit I split all the entities up because one if one area is having a problem safety wise I don't want the entire companies to fall for it right right if that area and I need to work on it and get it safer let me work on that area don't fault everything you know what I mean because you can make everything fall from one or two or three different things that happen in a couple different areas so split it everybody has their own safety score our own DLT own authority and it's 100 legal wow wow so so you were able to but you didn't do that from the beat did you do that from the beginning or did you have to go back and clean it up I cleaned it up okay I had bumps and bruises okay I had bad safety score gotcha you know so you had to basically re-uh get everything all all over that's correct in the beginning that's correct that and that wasn't difficult to do it was um but you you learn over time you learn um company structure is very important people don't understand what company structure is and uh it's it's very important it's alongside with compliance and your money right and it's that important um things happen in trucking and when you give the ability to um someone to take everything for one organization problem you know let's say you had a guy he he did something wrong he hurt people or whatever and they have the opportunity to sue you if everything is not in one basket they can only sue for that portion that entity that's it right all right and if you have one entity that owns all the equipment you cannot sue for the equipment only the insurance policy does that make sense no because say it one more time for me all right I think you lost me guys I started I'm listening but I just one more time all right I'll start over right so so let's say uh Shepherd companies owns all the equipment company or the equipment the parent company the parent company yep the holding if you will owns everything there's some game right here check there's some real get some real game right now tune in that's sometimes I'm listening so a Shepherd companies owns everything all right Shepherd company don't run no trucks they just own the equipment but Shepard Trucking Shepard uh Shepherd Logistics Solutions you know Shepherd Towing Shepard Auto Transport now leases that equipment from Shepherd companies anything that happens within the entity they can sue for the policy but they can't take you in as a whole let's say you got 10 million dollars worth of equipment here 20 million dollars worth of equipment here they start to come after assets if you start you do something negative negligent enough they'll come after assets right so if you tie up those assets by another holding company those are now not accessible to the to the to the lawsuit got it got it where'd you learn that oh bumps and bruises where'd you learn that way my attorney that was that that is super smart man yeah I love that I love that so um and and have you ever had a situation where that's been tested I have I had one situation uh in the Box I'm in a box truck yeah unfortunately I had a driver hit my state trooper a State Trooper yes of all people to hit yeah okay so you know they're gonna really try to get you oh yes and and and you know without going into it deeply the trooper was somewhat at fault too um no warning lights based on his position at 3 A.M in the morning yeah it's a guy that drove for me six years never no accidents um not one and boom this night this happened right so this is why I was tested my guy hits a State Trooper who's coming over a crest of a hill there was an accident scene they were leaving the scene turn the lights off and Trooper pulled into the road talking to the city guys cleaning the sink my guy comes over the hill tries to avoid him Nicks the corner of the car spun it out and it hurt two guys okay okay while that scene was being cleaned up two three hours later a tractor in the in it basically is a traffic jam a tractor trailer unrelated to us plowed into five vehicles killing four people oh wow the victims families in that accident tried to come sue us wow and then we're like whoa now this can get out of line yeah you know quick you know that's a lot of people for sure you know God forbid I hate to be even involved with that right but that's one of the challenges of trucking and I admit that this is one of the problems I had people can't keep it real and just say Hey listen man we [ __ ] up we did this we did this you know some people can't admit that I'm 100 I'ma tell you this is one of the problems I had great driver great driver been with me six years yeah it happened and so our attorney said well if they can sue for that then we should be able to sue for the next two accidents from the first scene unrelated to us right it's a rabbit hole gets deep that was close but it was thrown out because of the time frame and everything else the truck doesn't belong to us obviously time frame where their police presence there's a lot of factors that that the judge looked at and just said no we can't do that so that's you know if we did something like that every accident on the highway and there's a rear end in the back everybody can sue the first accident it it doesn't it doesn't work that way so right yeah but that was going to get ugly that could definitely get ugly fast and that's what happens when you have these kind of situations everybody's looking for somebody to sue always Trucking is the target you know they're looking for somebody to blame for the situation I mean that's an unfortunate you know situation for everybody but but wow so so so it was tested but you were still able to to maintain and everything absolutely that's that's that's awesome all right um man let's let's you you just have so much going on I want to kind of just dive into like everything um going back to the Gen the general Freight what is your um kind of like your strategy so you're still doing Amazon right absolutely and Amazon is a daily kind of daily thing 24 7 24 7. for the last nine years so how much Amazon are you doing compared to the general stuff now oh Amazon is a very small they're still they're a small part you kind of got out of Amazon yes you you where would you call Amazon usually in in each big uh Distribution Center like MKE 5 or MKE one or we we have a bunch of MKS around here um they usually use what they call the big four carriers um there's usually the four carriers that are big that handles the bulk of work and the Overflow is then put on the low board usually got you and we're one of the big four carriers and that uh that creates the consistent work you get a different rate your rate doesn't fluctuate with the market that's a good thing and a bad thing right right right can you imagine yeah you'll get a peak time and then you know there's a guy got a thousand bucks to go over here and but you got 700 on it right but you got 700 every day for the year you got a thousand bucks once there you go so there you go you choose what you want to take makes sense so um so it's uh we stay consistent we stay uh what they need um they used to Amazon doesn't like Monopoly um so they like a variety of carriers and they keep the big four they keep us always competing for score you know they're smart right very smart you know keeping our stuff together you know being on time uh and and that's that's one of the great things with Amazon like I said they're consistent and uh that we've been with them so long and that I really appreciate that but I could not keep all my eggs in one basket so as far as percentages with Amazon versus Freight Amazon is probably 25 maybe 20 of our our business got you yeah do you think it's a good place for people to start like if you're trying to get into the business would you recommend hey go check check Amazon out I recommend Amazon for consistency sake um but do not rely on them you will not make it right you will not make it they go dry for you I'm talking on a regular load board carrier type right like relay relay I mean relay when you're first getting in that's that's a perfect cash flow opportunity um be careful you will run the low for nothing because they will put it out there for nothing or negative right um so that's a good place to start on the box side or a tractor side you know especially during Peak because you can get a lot of money together during Peak but do not rely on them yeah no do not rely on them do not rely on a low board rely on creating new relationships everywhere got you direct customers everywhere gtt commercial ties is a Thai store that's designed with the owner operator in mind it serves as a helpful Community where you are always their number one priority whether you're a new owner operator or you've been driving for years their mission is the same to keep owner operators in business that's why they go above and beyond providing Superior customer service when you actually need it educating you on proper Tire Care and delivering a no BS sales experience with two conveniently located stores in Richmond and Petersburg Virginia and almost 2005 star Google reviews they are truly raising the bar and setting a new standard entire care make sure you call 1-800-991-6251 to schedule your appointment now and tell them truck and hustle sent you foreign what are you guys looking at in term in terms of like kpis what are the things that you know keep you up at night when you're looking at your financials what are those things that you're kind of studying to kind of make better improve upon tell me about that three major costs Insurance drivers fuel three major costs those are the three things that you must watch closely there's a balance of of quality driver cost you know what I mean your insurance costs and and your fuel you know you know as well as I do fuel changes by two bucks that could mean 80 100 000 a month difference right where you get that right where you where do you fix that yeah where do you feel that at can you just let it roll right that's when like I was saying earlier you got to go to your customers and say listen this is what's changing be forthcoming be straight up insurance is I mean uh fuel is costing me this much more unfortunately I have to raise the rate to this you know make it make sense um you constantly got to watch that you let that flow and roll you'll look up and you're burning 50 000 a month you're burning 80 000 a month and you're looking like where's all the money going where is it going yeah Fuel and quality drivers when you talk about quality drivers how much money do you spend on marketing for drivers actually not much um we spend about 500 bucks a week about two grand a month okay um we use a number of platforms you you know some people say oh I don't use Craigslist don't use this don't use use everything at the end of the day you have to sort them out right right you can you can have a bad driver on any platform that's true you can have a great guy that you never thought you would have on Craigslist because that's what he knows he used you know um so there's no best way um you have to sift them out yeah you have to you check their CSA scores you have to check their background right or their problem for the last company you know that that's that's key do you have any specific hiring criteria like in terms of like uh time uh sure like the MVR yeah yeah mvrs uh no more than two majors okay um no more than two minors um but you can't have both together okay um we like we prefer two years uh prefer and prefer it's hard to find it's hard to find hard to find yeah and uh you get some Naturals yeah you know yeah some of a lot of our box guys I probably had a good six or seven box guys that rolled into tractors and I knew their history from driving a box right yes it's a big difference with Trucking but their mentality was where I needed it to be they do their pre-trips they take their pictures before and after they Tire kick they do everything right and it's like we have to invest in those guys and get them to a tractor stage yeah and we started moving those guys in tractors and they were Naturals I like that word Naturals because I tell people all the time they're us there are some guys who just got it I was a natural yeah my my guy here girls and women and women yeah women are very excited that's just natural yes and Naturals and you got to give them a chance you got to take those road tests with them yeah and see what they have yeah you know oh I'm new I just got out of school all right all right let's go on the road test road tests will tell you everything right yeah right what about what about like for for safety I'm sure you'd have safety meetings like safety means quarterly okay yep safety bonuses quarterly okay yep we go off it you know any any of our drivers that gets stopped for a uh a road check or whatever and uh you get a clean inspection 100 bucks turn it in we'll give you a hundred bucks okay yep anytime anywhere turning it has to be the physical copy though you can't send me a picture we need the copy so we can put that in our file yeah and uh 100 bucks every time you get stopped four times this week I don't care if you pull up on an officer and say hey give me an inspection I I don't care I'll still give you a hundred bucks right and how are you guys on driver retention um it's not terrible um during during covet it was bad because you know you know everybody played the game and everybody want to get paid for nothing it was it was big on and during that time um the team we have now has been with us a long time very loyal um very good very clean running um I can't complain it's it's been great lately yeah um now that we're growing though you know you get that curve again where you gotta get new guys learn new guys right are they good so we're on that this it's time to find new people and new Talent yeah it's hard no it's hard it's definitely tough out there man especially in this market yes there's so many new drivers that you know need to be trained up and everything like that do you do like training like safety training and everything in-house absolutely yep yep so what do you guys do like whatever systems you use for that absolutely so every quarter we do a whole safety meeting we do we watch videos we watch all the with the do's and don'ts systems stuff like that oh fires in the trucks yeah like for safety training like what systems do you guys use like oh we don't we don't use okay okay our insurance company actually sends out a safety director okay um a trucking guy and a trooper of 20 years um to show what he's seen what happened uh things that happen um it works out it works out well um and you only have to do so much of that when you get a good team you know they know these I got a lot of OG's they they know you know they they're super safe but consistently constantly what we call beating a horse we have to always beat the horse on the safety that's just number one you know safety and compliance number one yeah yeah yeah 100 and and I'm sure like so all the drivers they all report here this is like the million Hub Forever This is Yep this is home they all report here uh we run uh samser for all our logs and stuff like that have you heard of Sam sir yeah I know what I'm saying fire yeah fire definitely five cameras in all units so now now what about do the guys ever want to like transition into different verticals like you might have a guy from General like hey I wanted to try to car haul yes yeah you kind of work that out absolutely seniority thing because I'm sure there's some maybe more money in one absolutely absolutely we get guys that want to go over to car hauling they'll try it and they'll you know if they like it they'll stay or if they don't they'll be like yeah put me back in the freight you know um yes and we let them do what they want within the company um we're fine with that you know especially we know they're a great driver why not use them you know or you know let them grow there you know their resume on different things that they can do yeah always we let them do anything they want it never becomes like an issue in-house for like other guys who may want that spot no no no because there's not many people that want to bounce around okay no most of the guys kind of stay they want to just sit down gonna want to stick to what they what they want to stick to what they know and what what part of the business do you enjoy the most in terms of the different verticals Shepherd arms separate arms the gun store he likes a gun store that is fun not the drugs at all that's that's the fun the fun thing for you yes okay the gun store is fun for me um when we open Shepherd arms it's just been a joy I I don't even track time when I'm there wow it is just it's just fun okay super fun okay got it got it I love it man I love it um I I think we covered most of it did I did I miss anything I'm trying to try to make sure oh yeah we do got a trucking course coming you have a trucking course yeah we're gonna start we're going to start training start a trucking course it's not like you know much about Trucking right yep so a couple of things we're going to start a trucking school uh that's coming up soon okay um we're gonna you know create a nice little area here and we're gonna teach Trucking okay um as far as drivers we're going to teach drivers CDL training yep Shepherd okay yep Shepherd CDL training okay and we also going to start a course for people who wants to start their own Trucking Company okay and uh a step by step we call it the blueprint okay all right I'm gonna give my blueprint whether you think it works or not you know I'm I'm not here to say oh this guy said this this guy said that listen I'm gonna tell you what I did um in nine years 150 units I will teach you how to do that yeah you know from where I'm from I had nothing you know I'm not uh special I didn't go to college I don't have a college education yeah you know I'm not great with public speaking and all that right but I can Hustle No Doubt what inspired you to do to do this uh the the courses um a lot of I get a lot of people that ask me hey how did you do how you do this how you do this how you do this and it's like [ __ ] man I can't keep sitting down and just you know take a hundred thousand people and keep telling them the game you know right right listen that game is sold not told right that's it that's it but I mean you definitely know the game yeah I know I understand again you understand the game I understand so so if so when you say the blueprint great word what would you say if you had to put if you had to put Trucking in a framework and you had to say these are the things you need to understand to become a successful trucking company or you know uh investor in trucking or whatever like what would you say are the the pillars of a trucking company yeah the pillars you got it right that's gonna hold it up yeah you got it right uh financially you got to be disciplined you know when you people you get a bunch of trucks and they see all the money and they're like oh yeah I have this I have this I have this amount of money [ __ ] could happen where you need that money to float you or keep you rolling when things aren't so well you know a lot of people think you know I mean I made a million dollars this thing hey if you made a million bucks take 200 000 and keep it us what not and 3800 let it sit trust me right it you'll use it or you'll find a way or it'll benefit you another way um be careful you know got to have discipline um big thing you know equipment equipment serious uh drivers serious you know um these are the things that make or break Trucking you know keep Insurance costs down you know when you get in the game they're hitting you hard yeah some people paying two three thousand dollars four thousand dollars a month for a truck you know for insurance it's hard to make it that way but there were so many new people that came in the game without the knowledge of understanding compliance driver Fitness great drivers things like that that creates all these accidents and problems that made insurance go up I was one of them right right right I was one of them I learned right I said well what do I do what can you do to make it well so it's uh like I said the equipment is serious I try to get the best newest greatest equipment because that will keep you consistent consistency yeah oh I bought this truck for ten thousand I'm Gonna Roll it it's got a million five miles on it right you won't be consistent yeah yeah okay is there a certain place where like because you have all these different verticals and all these different niches before you like because when people watch this they're gonna be like oh man I can start a trucking company a car hauling company I could do that that might not be good advice for everybody correct right correct so focus on one first yeah can you just speak to that like when do you know it's time to move away to another business I was some somebody will watch your story and they'll think that is what you did is easy and they could do all these different things correct many people aren't able to succeed in doing what you did correct so tell me about that the number one thing is always understand that one business one entity has to run flawlessly I'm not going to use that word flawless because nothing runs flaws I'm going to use one entity has to be on cruise control before your brain can even focus on the next thing okay you can't have uh this bumpy area here and trucking you don't have your driver pool understood you you still have bad safety scores you have to correct that and get it running on cruise control before you make make your next step that makes may take a year five years ten years it Whatever It Takes mastered that first I recommend guys getting in the truck and um get your CDLs understand what the driver is doing I can't tell somebody to do something I don't know what to do right I need to be in a position that I understand every aspect of the business because I did it and and sometimes like you said you can't let drivers control you know oh I'll do this or I'll do this listen I'll get a truck and do it myself right you can't tell me what you're not going to do I'm fine I'll I'll do it myself right I'll get my ass out listen if I gotta take a load now I don't I've only been out of the trucks about two years okay yeah okay I've been every day you know and I'm not scared of getting a truck anytime anywhere anyhow I'll take a load I had a situation where I had a a guy was out of hours in Texas and I didn't know nothing about this till 4 pm and I flew straight out of here straight to Texas yeah I had a load of cars going to an event a race event if they're not there to disqualified it's a hundred thousand dollar event here yeah you know they can win 100 Grand hey oh I'm out of hours I'll get there you know 12 hours late oh no it's not happening right off the plane my wife and I yeah so I'm right in the truck hey get back there go to sleep I'll drive all night right made it but that's what it take that's what it takes yeah that's what people don't understand you got to be willing to do what others want yeah yeah I'm willing to do that no doubt what what are you bad at what are you not good at oh what am I not good at what's your weaknesses in business listen I ain't perfect by no means uh weaknesses uh in business some people may think this is bad but I'm not scared of nothing hmm okay to me it's good so I don't care if it don't work I'm not scared of that um sometimes I jump two feet in and I should have waited a little bit sometimes I move forward too quick on certain things um that's I think my weakness and my problem but like I said at the end of the day I don't care if it works or not um I I'm gonna do what I do right and it's been working but if it doesn't I'm not scared of it you're not afraid of risk never I'll dust myself off and try it again has has that ever backfired on you not being absolutely absolutely what would you say if you could think of one thing that stands out what would you say is some a time when you took a risk where maybe you shouldn't have um I'd say uh on a heavy record side that was a risk because those trucks cost a ton of money they cost a ton of money you need business for that right and I know the OG's around here for heavy records they got it sold up I respect that you know I'm like listen I just need to tow my own stuff you know I'd be happy with that you know but uh that was a risk and it cost me it costs you yeah you started looking like whoa whoa now this is starting to outweigh how much I need these trucks because I'm preaching about these new units well am I gonna need this heavy record so much right you know but uh I just started so I was wasting a lot of money in the beginning but once I started to make those relationships you know with all my box truck guys even the guys I leased to you started reaching out to all the Amazon guys that I do business side by side with Hey listen you know we tow we tow and we know this game hey if I have to bring a truck to you to move your Amazon low let you take one of ours to keep it rolling and keep your Amazon account clean I'll do so and you started you know moving it like that then started to become something yeah absolutely got you can are you able to talk about Revenue sure sure where are you guys at like what did you guys do last year Revenue Top Line sure sure 14 million with 14 million dollar company okay um from zero to 14 million not bad at all nine years yeah so um it's been great um I can't complain uh it's uh I I can't thank our team and our people enough um some guys have been with us from the beginning you know loyal yeah great you know great people yeah and I try my best to pay them the best you know right and I give them that loyalty pay you know yeah I wouldn't be here without him you know no doubt no for sure so so where where do you see this thing going man because it seems like you're like the Walt Disney you're Trucking man like you whatever you could imagine you're gonna yeah yeah honestly I we were growing real real fast and I slowed down during uh the pandemic um we slowed down and I was like whoa because it was a lot of trucks sitting we started burning a lot of money drivers was really sick drivers was lying about sick and drivers was quitting and going to these local companies I was paying ridiculous because of the shortage right you know people that couldn't you couldn't compete with you know what I mean you got a local company over here yeah we pay you 3 500 a week to go 100 miles a day you're home every day right whoa you start losing your non-loyal guys and trucks were sitting and I'm like hey well I'm scared to grow right now I don't know what's going to happen I don't know the future here I don't I don't understand you know I I just don't don't want to grow anymore I turn down you know some trucks I took half of what I ordered and it was just oh scary yeah burning a lot of cash a lot of money insurance right you know and it was like whoa that's scary yeah you know you know granted it is a hopefully a once in a lifetime type of thing covet yeah I mean for sure I hope nothing ever happens like that again for sure but once that little period stopped and we were the only things rolling because it was covered you know we're essential trucks had to move right it started to be great because you've seen the market Freight rates through the roof you know it's like oh you can use some of this to secure new guys you can do this you can do this but then you got to be careful you start giving out too much and then when it the rates come back down to normal that guy's gonna be pissed you start talking about changing his money right that's a fact you got to be careful with that that's a fact how how much of your success would you attribute to luck everybody's lucky we were lucky to wake up [Laughter] as of that that's a fact but even but even in like being positioned in where you were positioned being in the right place at the right time you know when when you think about that do you think that based on where you were and where you were at with the company that's like you were kind of positioned perfectly to grow at that level that you grew or is it like no has nothing to do with that because I'm gonna say to make it happen you I was about to say that exactly I'm going to say no to the luck because um I could sit on my ass this didn't fall into our lap right you know I mean right it we didn't wake up and say oh [ __ ] right made millions of dollars a day because I did nothing it just came that's a fact no no no no no no it's hard work grinding it's sacrifice sacrifice you sacrifice time which are family time with with everything your kids growing up um personal time whatever it's a sacrifice to get it rolling you know but then that's one of the benefits once it's rolling yeah time at the end of the day [ __ ] the money I want that time that's right you know time with your family be able to not worry about the money side and enjoy life yeah and I asked that question because people are always trying to find like where the luck is that yeah when they see something that is successful like there has to be something that that you know made this happen that's outside of just hard work yeah you know what I'm saying yeah I like hearing those guys I'd be like yeah [ __ ] I ain't working on seven days I'm not working seven days I'm not working the weekends I'm not I'm not doing that I'm not doing any of that uh see that's that mindset that keeps you where you are yeah yeah and man you've got to be willing to do what others will not do you do anything for like personal development you're in Reading like anything like that cars cars cars that that's your thing that's my thing okay personal development is my cars how many cars you own oh man I declined the comment more than more than 10. yes more than 20. no so 15. in there and and you say you mostly went to the old schools old schools but we have some exotic songs old schools is is okay I'm more into a modern muscle yeah Exotics uh fast crazy 2000 horsepower stuff like what Lamborghinis Lamborghinis yeah Lamborghini Aventadors Ferraris McLaren 765s you got autos Jesus Christ I declined to come oh no you said you said you said McLaren Lamborghini oh God damn uh what's that one this was one over here in the shot oh yeah Tesla plaids all that type of stuff crazy stuff thousand horsepower when you get a chance to drive them man see that's what we're talking about that freedom in time when you get started when it's a well-oiled machine you can you can just step away and do a little something yeah but when you're constantly doing things I do continue to grow and sometimes I say why did I start this why did I start this project we just bought a bakery recently it's called The Lunch Box you're just doing things just just with a hell of it now at this point yeah and that's one of those things yeah it's kind of new and and it's and it's like man my wife owns a Pottery Shop it's called just killing time okay you know like a kiln Kiln yeah yeah you got it it's just killing time he's quick he's quick yeah just killing time one of the biggest fiery shops in the country okay uh here and uh she's been in business uh it'll be 11 years now okay I'm so proud of her with that you know oh that's awesome yeah it's crazy that we do Pottery too okay it's crazy Pottery so the bait so bakery bakery yeah what what do you like tell me about that so we just we just acquired that yeah we just acquired it we're gonna do a little less Bakery and we're gonna do more of a lunch spot something like uh soup salads uh you know small Cookies Cakes um not full-fledged bakeries like cannolis and all that crazy stuff just a little tamed down a nice lunch spot so you didn't build it from the ground up you acquired it I acquired it yeah it actually was caught formerly called Nino's Bakery okay Nino's has been in in in in in the Milwaukee area for 50 years plus okay so it was great to acquire like the stress or something like that or like what made you what made you find that opportunity it's funny because we were going to we didn't own the Pottery Shop building and they refused to sell it to us okay so they like well we're not selling it to you but here renew this lease for seven thousand dollars a month and I'm like what else can we do yeah so all of a sudden we see across the street Nino's is for sale um so luckily we caught it fast on the market okay and we bought ninos originally to put the Pottery Shop there got you but they then said after we buy ninos and spend a ton of cash hey we'll sell you to build it now after we say we're not signing that contract at least again I'm like oh [ __ ] now you gotta come out this much more money so I said well we'll just keep ninos and then we'll convert it to The Lunchbox called The Lunchbox and just killing time will stay where it is okay and uh we bought Jessica in time as well and it was uh it was it was all set that's been great too got some commercial real estate under the belt and I was gonna say I'm sure you're in the real estate as well yeah yeah commercial yeah Airbnb okay what about investing you into like cryptocurrency any of that I'm not I'm gonna tell you why I don't understand that cryptocurrency I get it but I don't understand it okay and uh so I'm scared you're not sold on it yet about stocks like traditional stocks nothing uh Amazon okay Apple the ones that are going to win for sure Tesla yeah yeah that's about it that's I mean that's smart yeah I mean you know that money's gonna work for you regardless for sure any other businesses you got going on because I don't even know about this Bakery thing man just pop that one up that was left field left field what else you guys got going on that is it we have Shepard tax and accounting you didn't say the taxing account you told me that earlier oh yeah so um we had uh this wonderful lady that used to do our taxes um her name is Jenny and she worked for farm and um one day she called me and she said hey you know can you afford XYZ um for me to come in the house and I said absolutely and I said well while you're here you know can we start an accounting business together and all our Trucking friends or all our other friends that have businesses we can take care of them and uh so we started Shepherd tax and accounting and we brought her in-house she's been with us now two years and it's been great oh wow taxes is always on point that's number one thing let me tell you yeah a lot of people don't play games with the alphabet boys okay don't play games with the ATF don't play against the IRS don't play games with the DEA nobody if you want to be successful because that'll just take you straight back right yeah and that's the number one thing that's going to get you to grow financials yeah if they don't see financials even if you ain't making money they want to see the cash flow yeah that's it wow wow I'm inspired man God damn you got a lot going on man this is crazy it's definitely crazy I I don't know like you just built this world or you guys have built this world that's just just evolving every day every day you know man all right well listen I think um I think we covered it quick we'll be about hour and a half in all right I guess we're gonna start wrapping it up man we could talk all day but um yeah listen so it's customarily on this show we always allow our guests to give a final thought which I kind of have an idea what yours is going to be sure and um we also let everybody know where they can connect with you you know on social media and so forth website all that so um let them know where they connect with you and then lastly let's get into that final thought which could be entrepreneurial spiritual wherever you want to go with it for sure parting words sure parting words right where you can connect with me on all right website's shepherdtrucking.com or uh Shepherd arms.com we also have Jessica and time dot com um a bunch of sites that you can check you know check us out um one of my my number one thoughts is my number one when I wake up in the morning is I I'm a very humble guy you know and I always try to remain that way you know people start to make a little money and they start to change they start to do things and stuff I don't um and so my number one saying is a stay humble and hustle hard um I love that and anything is possible you know people think uh oh I didn't I didn't go to school I didn't do this I didn't do this listen it don't matter oh man the best lesson is in the blessing right the best lesson is doing what you don't know learn it um it can happen you know people are worried at all what if this happened what if I lose my money so what what if you do what if it work there you go nobody think about it if it worked right oh what if it failed they always want to say that listen anything happen hey don't be scared stay hungry keep going no doubt and when can we expect that that course to come out man man soon we're working on it right now okay yes working on right now our websites are getting re redesigned sorry they're a little out of line it's been five years since I even looked at them just we're getting it together right so and that'll be a to z how to pretty much all Shepherd companies yeah yeah you get into these different niches and just give you an idea absolutely we're going to talk about from number one getting your Authority uh to understanding Insurance drivers understanding equipment how to obtain the best equipment um how to maintain accounts so you know just etiquette Trucking etiquette as a whole how to be compliance how serious compliance is you know like we briefly talked earlier like you know compliance is everything that'll stop everything you got to run it straight and narrow don't play yeah play games so I expect that there's going to be a few people beating down your door for this course especially after this this airs um listen hustle fam if you can't respect that your whole perspective is whack um this has been an amazing show amazing experience I wish you guys could see what I see around me only get a little piece of it but there's a super dope business super great people like he said humble um man I'm I'm amazed like I said very impressed man continued success I appreciate it thank you just keep on going man keep on inspiring us and keep on building this thing as far as you can imagination could stretch yeah um around this time what do we always say if you smell something burning it's only your desire myself Damien Shepard Shepherd Trucking we are out I'm stuck about trucks don't be dumb this is the place to come truck and huff let's go [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Truck N’ Hustle

Views: 336,049

Keywords: Podcast, truck n hustle podcast, truck n hustle, shepard trucking, shepard logistics, dameian shepard, fleet owner trucking, fleet owner, fleet owner income, exotic car hauling, exotic car hauler, wreckers tow trucks, tow truck business, towing, towing business with trailer, towing business start up, amazon box truck owner operator, amazon box truck, snyders pretzels, truck owner operator, truck owner operator salary, trucking business plan, trucking business 2022

Id: i-Xx7sNKQ3A

Length: 92min 35sec (5555 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 25 2022