Our Monday Routes

Keep on Trucking- 1

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When we started our dialysis company, we knew we were going to battle against some of the largest companies in the world.  And, we were – if we were lucky- awfully teeny.  But, we knew we had the absolute best product (yes, we were shy and retiring back then, too)- and we did our homework and knew how the marketplace operated.

It was clear that our nascent dialysis company was going to battle against some of the largest companies in the world.  And, we were – if we were lucky- awfully teeny.  But, we knew we had the absolute best product (yes, we were shy and retiring back then, too)- and we did our homework and knew how the marketplace operated

.Which meant we had to quote a delivered price to our potential customers.  Now, I should remind you that this was a fairly long time ago.  So long ago, that the IBM PC Jr had almost come on the market. So, we were running our company (OK, companies) on Osborne’s.  Invented by a fellow chem e (yes, a chem e invented the first sold group of portable computers!), with a zilog chip (this was before Intel entered the personal computer business, too) running on CP/M, the wonderful operating system developed by Gary Kildall.  They weren’t very powerful, they had no hard drives (although we did figure out how to add one to the system within a year of starting this company).

So, we had to program the freight prices into SuperCalc (the spreadsheet program of the time).  And, that meant we needed to swap floppy disks often.  Since the floppies (and these were 5 1/4 inch ones) only held 180K (yes, K) of data. But, we managed.

And, we made arrangements with a slew of trucking firms.  Wilson, Roadway, Smith’s Transfer, Yellow.  So, we could deliver to potential customers around the US.  Now, to be honest, the delivered price for our product in California made it really difficult for customers to justify buying our product, no matter how great it was.

But, we persevered and managed to obtain a slew of customers on the East Coast.  And, then because we made a tremendous modification of our product, we were able to sell it to hospitals and clinics in drums- 30 gallon or 55 gallon units.  Which meant that the larger facilities would be more prone to buy from us.  But, more importantly, because we could recover, clean, and sterilize the drums, that meant we could pass along the cost savings to our customers- and make our product very, very cost competitive.

But, that also meant we needed our own trucks.  Because if we were going to retrieve the drums, we couldn’t use common carriers.  First, it would require the customer to bundle them on pallets. (Our customers would NEVER do such a thing.)  And, most importantly, while freight is normally charged by weight- volume matters, too. And, we were going to use as much space on the truck for the empty drums as it would take to ship 2200 pounds.

Our Monday Routes

Here, we were.  A few PhD’s, MD’s, PhD-MD’s determined to buy our first truck.  What did we know?  (It will become obvious- not much.)   We bought a Mack Truck.  After all, when we were growing up, we all know those were great trucks.  What we didn’t know was that Mack Truck was really Renault, at the time.  Had we known that- the Mack would not have been our purchase choice.

But, it filled the bill.  (This truck had no sleeper.  So, there was no need for tandem driving.)  We hired two drivers.  We arranged for them to deliver product as far north as New York and as far south as North Carolina.  And, back then, truck drivers were allowed to drive longer hours.

We scheduled the first trip of the week to the longest distance and a quick return.  Switching to the next driver for shorter routes.  And, back again for the first driver.  The next week, the drivers reversed their roles.

Our freight costs for this region dropped more than 1 cent a pound (or almost 25 cents a treatment.)   That was all profit.

When APA purchased Smith’s Transfer, we hired away their regional dispatcher.  Now, we were cooking.  We bought a second truck- an International Tractor, with two trailers and  liftgates.  Don Lawson (our fantastic hire) took over our entire trucking operation.  And, we began acquiring more tractors and trailers.

At the same time, we opened a new facility in Long Beach (CA), so our California business could thrive.  With a straight truck, we (we now knew more than enough to manage this logistics operation; Don was fully immersed in our Virginia, Milwaukee, and Kansas City trucking operations) were able to cover from San Bernadino to San Diego.  And, we still used commercial carriers to handle San Francisco, Oregon, and Washington State.  We even used a straight truck for our Texas facility, covering from Corpus Christi to Dallas to Houston (and in-between).

Without Don, we’d probably have succeeded- but with Don, we learned a lot.  He always thought it was funny that eggheads and his “good-old-boys” could thrive together.  But, we knew more than enough to defer to Don’s experience, soaking up his pearls of wisdom as fast as we could.

We’ll continue this tomorrow.

 

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6 thoughts on “Keep on Trucking- 1”

    1. Which will be posted shortly, Alana.
      But, this piece was mostly to provide the basis upon which my suggestions for new entrants (new solopreneur trucking firms) can rely. To allow them to realize I am not some techie talking to a bunch of truck drivers.

  1. I am so impressed with how you started as a little guy and grew so well. Perseverance paid off well. It reminds me of my motto, “If you want to explore deeper oceans you have to leave sight of the shore. Looking forward to the next chapter!

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