As I prepared to board from flight to Houston from Detroit, I was anxious, excited, I honestly didn’t know what to expect coming from the small town of Roseville, MI to the big city of Houston, TX. I knew this trip was going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity. I was grateful to have the ability to travel for such an event to help promote the brand of Elite Drivers System to hundreds of likeminded individuals in the trucking industry.
I’ve been the main dispatcher at Elite for over a year now and manage all aspects of onboarding and booking loads and lanes for drivers and was ready to help as many new entrepreneurs as I could. As I was approaching the event, I was overcome with a sense of nervousness, unsure what to expect. There was a huge line that wrapped around the building filled with all sorts of people in the trucking industry. Brokers, small fleet owners, owner operators, dispatchers, as well as company drivers. As I walked through the door, I was instantly greeted with a backdrop reflecting that of a red carpet complete with the Truck N’ Hustle reset logo. Immediately following the entrance to the event organizers took your picture then motioned to have everyone fill out a name tag, after all this is a networking event. As soon as I entered the conference room there was a buffet filled with the likes of traditional southern cooking, everything from chicken and waffles to shrimp and grits, and my personal favorite, fried catfish.
The event kicked off by having three panel speakers that all shared their stories of how they got their business going and provided lots of advice and new insights into growing a successful trucking/dispatch service. I was amazed by the way the new companies were advertising and marketing their capabilities. The event was a huge opportunity to learn from new people in the trucking business and I was motivated to meet with as many different people from all across the country as possible. I had the privilege to speak with an owner operator who traveled all the way from California as well as brokers from Georgia, dispatchers from Illinois and everywhere in between. I also met someone from Chicago that recently moved down to Houston with three trucks who was thrilled to hear about Elites business plan and capabilities I even ran into one of my previous drivers who has now grown his business to running 8 trucks.
I was eager to pass speak with everyone how Elite is focused on assisting new drivers with loads to help get them started and explain how I center my focus on adhering to my drivers’ preferred routes and work with them to jump start their careers. I was able to network, build new relationships with drivers and have even already onboarded new owner operators with loads booked. One of the best takeaways from this event would have been reconnecting with one of my old drivers and getting the chance to work with him again as his dispatcher. Having the ability to have reconnected with a previous colleague was incredible. He currently only has one truck but saw the incredible business standpoint Elite offers and put his faith in me to help grow his business and secure his ideal business goals. This driver is currently operating an international 53 ft dry van and he was actually a logistics professional in the maritime industry before becoming an owner operator and spent many years dealing with steamships and decided to hit the road. He currently likes to run freight from Houston Texas to ST Louis Missouri and back. He was one of my best drivers back in the day and I am thrilled to getting the chance to rebuild our business relationship and help him achieve his goals with Elites services.
Ultimately, Truck’ N’ Hustle proved to be such an incredible business opportunity, I was able to meet so many different people in the trucking industry and create a name for my company. I even had the chance to close out the conference room with the megaphone preaching about who and what Elite Driver Systems is. I made new business connections, got to take some photos in the photobooth with likeminded individuals and speak and learn from people who are just as passionate about this industry as I am. I can honestly say I am eagerly awaiting the next event Truck’ N’ Hustle is hosting, Freight Fest in November 2022. I know this next networking event, I have big goals for Elite and am going to work towards helping to assist as many new drivers and owner operators as possible by being their dispatcher and always working diligently to ensure their goals and preferences are met.