"Any small carrier should belong to something, some sort of trade organization so they have like-minded people to bounce ideas off of." --Small Fleet Champ finalist Otto Transfer CFO, safety director Kevin Otto
Off the top of the podcast this last week of October the voice Minnesota-headquartered Kevin Otto, owner and leader with his wife, CEO Liz Otto, of Otto Transfer, this year celebrating a whopping 80 years in business. He's a "big believer," he said, in those fundamentals of building a network on which you can rely for ideas in- and outside the box, in his case through active participation in his state trucking association.
Otto's been active in the Minnesota Trucking Association for years, even serving as chairman of its board in past, and as you’ll hear in this week's podcast the 16-truck fleet’s involvement continues very active indeed with local schools putting young drivers through share-the-road paces with their equipment in various training efforts.
Over close to five-six years, hundreds of high-school students "have been a part of our 15-20-minute session, where we put them inside a tractor, show blind spots, have them walk around our long trailer, understand how to pass safely, understand following distance," as Liz put it.
Their 16-year-old has been through it, Liz added, and it gives the small fleet owners comfort knowing their fourth child learning to drive under their tutelage has gotten the education needed on safely sharing the road.
[Related: 80 years of specialized excellence: Otto Transfer]
Overdrive Radio's sponsor is Howes, longtime provider of fuel treatments like its Howes Diesel Treat anti-gel and Lifeline rescue treatment to get you through the coldest temps, likewise its all-weather Diesel Defender and Howes Multipurpose penetrating oil, among other products.
And in the 3-10-truck category we’ve got Kevin Haderlie, owner of TruckWise in Tremonton, Utah, and owner Shannon Sanders of Manteca, California-based KST Logistics.
In some ways, what Kevin Otto speaks to at the top of the podcast is the very goal of the Small Fleet Championship itself, to bring together owner-operated small fleets from disparate parts of the nation to share ideas, surface ways new and old of increasing profitability, and forge new connections that might not otherwise have ever been built. As an association, NASTC has long shared that goal with its own efforts, to be sure, and every one of the finalist fleets will have opportunity to experience that organization, with membership a perk of getting through to the finals.
Congrats to our finalists, for certain, all making huge efforts this year to maintain and expand profits despite the many winds blowing hard against the grille.
Meeting the broker-AI challenge
Kevin and Liz Otto aren't sheltered from the storm. If you’re out at the NASTC event this week, ask them about the fuel spike early this year and what it did to their contracts. AI, too, and increasing "Uberization" or "Amazonization" of freight. Though in the power-pole-haul business Otto's surely benefiting from AI data-center infrastructure rollouts, outside of those direct contracts automation’s put real pressure on brokerage relationships the fleet has relied on for open-deck freight headed back toward the Minnesota home base.
"We get automated phone calls and obviously emails, and you don't build relationships anymore" with every broker increasingly automating communication and vetting, carrier selection, Kevin said. Too often such brokers just say to themselves, "we've got a truck here, we're just going to use that one," he added. "That's not going to keep our roads safe."
The fleet’s doing a lot, at once, to counter the trend, to adjust to it with its own focus on safety and, truly, breaking through automation with hands-on customer service, in so many ways. Listen on for the Otto story as just a small piece of the many that have emerged from this year's Small Fleet Championship coverage. Find profiles of all finalists and semi-finalists with plenty more to chew on via this link.
[Related: Small Fleet Champ Wes Oberman harnesses AI coding, builds custom TMS]
