CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19


T ompson said. “And then we engineer that asset fl eet based on what the customer’s needs are dynamically, Monday through Friday or 24-7, whatever that may be.” T e company relies on long-term


relationships with 12-18 major customers, along with smaller contracts. As vice president of sales and marketing, T ompson’s job is to fi nd new customers, of course, but it’s


also to expand on the relationships it already has. He works with current customers to see if an opportunity exists to grow their fl eet while ensuring the customer can see they’re doing business with a clean operation. “If you don’t have a relationship with your


customer, then you’re just a spreadsheet,” he said. “You’re just a commodity, so to speak, and at least if you have a relationship, you can get last rites if the business is going somewhere else, or has an opportunity


Long term leadership Beyond that, the American Trucking


Associations will be going into their an- nual meeting in October to set the tenor for what to look for going forward. According to Spear, the longer term


to go somewhere else. At least they’ll call and say, ‘Hey, Bud, you’ve got to do something or you’re going to lose this.’” Piper said T ompson is good at


concerns are the driver shortage and au- tonomous technology. “Autonomous technology is a five-


to-ten-year-out issue that is being largely driven by the auto industry. The commer- cial sector shares the same roads. If we are talking connected vehicle, connected to in- frastructure, what is the regulatory frame- work? I don’t want that being designed and handed to the federal and state regulators by the auto industry,” Spear says. “I want to be at the table and make ure our industry has got a voice, and hatever is adopted in the future is good


s in and develop relationships with folks, and w if he sees where they’re having an issue or for our industry and not harmful. That


where we can do something that’ll help out requires just stepping up our game and


their operation, he’s just going to fi gure out focusing on what the trends are. Here is a


a way to make it work. … If you’re familiar technology that could possibly deal with


s at all with the Tim McGraw song ‘Humble ould deal with productivity. It could deal ith driver shortage. There a e a lot of


afety, emissions and the environment. It c and Kind,’ that’s kind of who Wayland is. w He’s just a plain, simple country guy from defined gains from it, but we need to un-


thing and do right by the people that he’s that happen. That’s not clear, so I’m not


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20 • TENNESSEE TRUCKING NEWS Q4 WINTER 2017 26


TENNESSEE TRUCKING NEWS The regulatory front is always key for “If you don’t have a


trucking, but without a voting majority on the Hill, Spear says, ATA has to exert some push back on the agencies and try to find some balance to work with regulators in a constructive way and not in a way that’s harmful or harbors an agenda. Spear says the enemy isn’t regula-


relationship with your customer, then you’re just a spreadsheet.”


— WAYLAND THOMPSON, FIRSTFLEET “We’ve had folks who we’ve kind of


tions; it’s bad regulations. “We don’t mind regulations. We are used to them. We just want very good, clear regulations. Things that work and can be complied with. We haven’t seen a lot of that lately, and that’s an area of focus that we need to step up and work with the agencies to really help shape what that outcome is going to look like and ensure that it’s not damaging to the industry going forward.” And of course, come November, the


strategy could change, but Spear says that trucking’s story won’t. “You’ve got a Senate here in D.C. that


could flip …And I’m not even going to be- gin to guess who’s going to be in the White House or what happens to the Senate. What


gone in and just done a handful of trucks with them, basically based on Wayland’s relationship and a handshake, and had it develop into signifi cant pieces of business with us. And I think that’s what kind of endears him to the folks that he gets to know is they don’t feel like that he’s kind of a used car salesman-type guy where he’s constantly trying to get them to do something that maybe they don’t think that they need to do. He’s just always looking for an opportunity that’s a win-win for everybody.” FirstFleet works so closely with its customers that it can be hard to tell the


Q2 SUMMER 2016


Oklahoma. His family is everything to him, derstand what that’s going to look like and


and he’s out there just trying to do the right what is required of our industry to make


q calling on and trying to do business with. …


uick to embrace that as the future, but I’m quick to say that we need to be at the table and drive the outcome.”


communicating with the varied types of people who work for a shipper, whether it’s the order selector, the shipping supervisor, or the president. David Beeny, the company’s executive vice president, administration, concurred. He worked with T ompson at Diesel Sales and Service and then followed him to FirstFleet soon aſt er T ompson had leſt . He said T ompson succeeds by building relationships, not by using sales techniques. “He’s a very tenacious guy. He tries to get


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