Saturday, November 29, 2014

History is important, Here is the beginning of ours.........

Our new business began officially on September 21, 2013 so one year later our 2nd year began.  In that first year we learned a great deal.  Well, honestly, we learned nearly everything we currently know, if that makes sense.  The learning curve to stepping out on our own in a trucking company was very steep, even though I had done some of this before.   I have had so very much to learn and really a very short time to learn it.  And I have found out that I do not learn fast.  When I KNOW something, I KNOW it, but getting to that point takes time.  Time that we have really not had so I have had to stretch in all directions. 

Jonathan is VERY SMART, a risk taker and a VERY fast learner.  Sometimes, he has a hard time understanding that many of the rest of us do not learn things as fast as he does so we have frustrated him a great deal over the last year.  But he has taken some amazing risks for us to get where we are today and the future is wide open.

It has been a lot of fun, a lot of frustration, a lot of many different things to figure out that we really do balance each other well and we are growing to be truly partners in this venture. 

When we bought the equipment, and started the company, we also hired the woman who had owned the company we bought the equipment from.  She had the knowledge that we needed to get things going and couldn't have done what we have done to this point with out her.  She and her husband ran a very stable company that was pretty entrenched in the local area.

One of the first and most important things we have learned is that good truck drivers are not easy to find in our part of the world.  Don't get me wrong, there are a number of drivers out there, but when you are doing what we do, first and foremost we have to be very choosy as to who we hire.  In January, we added a driver in to our little group.  He is a 3rd generation truck driver, who has a wonderful, supportive family. 

In April we decided that if we were going to make this business what we wanted it to be we were already going to have to branch out as there was simply not enough work "locally" to do what we had the vision of doing.  We were not sure what we were going to do, but knew we had to do something. 
Then one day, a phone call came in looking for the previous company to see if they had any trucks available.  So, after some brief negotiation and modifications on the trucks, across the mountain Jonathan and Jody went. 

With in just a few months our Territory is now basically a square  from El Paso to Albuquerque to Amarillo, to Big Spring to Odessa and back to El Paso.  The possibility of growth from even here is only limited by what we choose to call out of bounds. 

Because of the growth of our territory, we also needed to grow our ability to deliver product. The beginning of November, we contracted with our first owner operator and brought on his truck. 
This addition was going to make it possible for us to have 2 trucks on the road every day as Jonathan would spell out the driver who went home for his days off. 
 Then end of November, surprisingly, someone at the company we are working with found another tanker for sale.  It was similar to what we needed, and at a price we could afford and the owner agreed to finance it for us!  All of this came together just in time for us to be VERY THANKFUL. 
So as of December 1, we have three complete sets of equipment on the road.  Two every day and three part of the time.  This will enable Jonathan to be back in the office a few days a week to continue to look for opportunities to build our little company into what our vision is becoming. 

So, two days before the end of November, 2014 God only knows what is next on our horizon! I am gathering my energy to see what He has in store for us.