factoring services. It has a dedicated fleet of about 40 owner-operators who run under their own authority. Its shop facility, South Side Sales & Service, offers truck and trailer repair, washouts, and rock and gravel for sale to the public and by contract. Sister company Eagle Transportation Corporation owns tractors and hopper trailers that it leases and rents to small fleets. Two companies have spun off Eclipse and


now are owned by their long-time managers. Eclipse Transportation Corp., a bulk hauler, operated from 2002 to 2007, when it became a separate entity, Chicoda Carriers, owned by Steve Lagree and dispatched by Marsha Walters. Rock On, a dump truck hauler in southeast Nebraska, was spun off this year and now is owned by Ron Jeffery. Eclipse Transportation, the bulk hauler,


reached as high as about 70 units. With that number, Mencl couldn’t bid on big jobs and often had to partner with other companies for smaller ones. Tat wasn’t a problem in the brokerage business, which is one reason he likes brokering better.


“A truck line, no matter how many trucks


you have, you don’t always have a truck on the corner. … But with a broker, if you have enough trucks and truckers … you have a lot better chance of having a truck on the corner,” he said. Mencl, 61, currently has relationships with


800-900 owner-operators and small carriers with access to thousands of trucks, who can take loads of all sizes. Basically, he owns a trucking company without trucks. “Having trucks is like legalized gambling to


me,” he said. “Tis way, I can get an owner- operator at a fixed cost. If the engine blows up or the transmission goes out or the driver quits on a given day, it’s just not quite the same consequences when you can get your truck and your driver at a fixed cost. As I get older, I like that. It’s less stressful.” Tat’s not to say that being a broker is


easy. Among the biggest challenges is keeping rates at appropriate levels. With fuel prices decreasing, customers expect rates to fall too, despite the fact that many trucking costs are rising.


“Usually I’ve found that if fuel prices are


high, those people that make rate decisions, they have to go to the gas station and fill up their car with gas,” he said. “And when they go do that, they go, ‘Holy cow! Gas is high. Guess I can’t blame the truckers for wanting more money.’ But when that price goes back down, they go, ‘Nah, gas is cheap. Tey need to lower those rates.’” Mencl got his first taste of trucking


growing up in Virginia, Nebraska, a town of 90 people. His parents, John and Glenadine, owned a bar and grill, a grocery store, and a harvesting and a trucking business. By the time he was 16, Mencl was driving an International straight truck with a 24-foot box. After high school, Mencl graduated with


an accounting degree from the Grand Island School of Business, worked in an office for a year, and then bought his first truck, a Class 8 International. In 1974, he and his dad merged their companies to form Agri-Carriers to haul grain from farms and co-ops. But their timing was unfortunate. A severe drought struck the state and there was little grain to haul, so


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