Tompson said he didn’t even know what
a dedicated contract carrier was when he took the job. Te move meant he went from being an owner to an employee – a difficult transition for some, but not for him, and he doesn’t mind that he’s no longer the boss. “I’m a humble guy,” he said. “I’m just
glad to be here. It’s a teamwork, anyway. I mean, someone’s got to sign a check. I get that, but it takes a lot of cogs in the wheel to make it go around and connect.” Te move meant Tompson would be
able to focus on the aspects of business that interested him most – sales and relationships – and step away from those aspects he found less appealing. “I think the good Lord gives you giſts,
and I kind of recognized my giſt is I love people, I love relationships, and that was probably more suited for me than banking and financing and all the other things that go with owning a business,” he said. “Operations, I love that as well, but I’m more of a people person. I realize that, and that’s kind of
“He’s a very tenacious guy. He tries to get in and develop relationships with folks, and if he sees where they’re having an issue or where we can do something that’ll help out their operation, he’s just going to figure out a way o make it work.”
— DANIEL PIPER, FIRSTFLEET
where I have found my niche in this life.” Tompson was the first outside salesman
the company hired, and there was a brief moment of growing pains. Te first time he met Daniel Piper, the company’s vice president of operations, was on a sales call. Te two were telling the customer such different stories that the customer finally said, “You boys, until you get your stories straight, you can both hit the door and come back when you get your stuff together.” As Piper remembers it, “I thought we were going to go toe to toe right then.” Cooler heads prevailed. “We didn’t say a word for about 15 minutes,
and I pulled over on the side of the road,” Tompson said. “I said, ‘We’re going to get this straight right now. We’re not going to let
this happen again.’ And we’ve been absolutely on the same page ever since for 23 years.” Despite that rocky start, the
company ended up getting a 50-truck dedicated run with the customer. Firstfleet owns about 1,700-1,800 trucks,
with major customers in the grocery industry along with shippers of perishable foods, beverages, concrete pipe and paper. It hauls dryvan trailers, flatbeds and reefers. About the only thing it doesn’t do is less-than-truckload routes, but it does make multiple long-haul stops. Te company’s employees work on
site, “jumping when the customer asks us to jump. We just ask them how high,”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
Q4 WINTER 2017 TENNESSEE TRUCKING NEWS • 19
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36