Intro – 00:00:01:
Welcome to Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast where we explore the fascinating world of trucking and freight management. We dive deep into the freight industry and uncover why the trucking industry is more crucial to our country now than ever before. Stay tuned to uncover the driving forces behind successful trucking businesses and hear from the hardworking truckers and leaders who keep the world moving. Let’s hit the road.
Brent – 00:00:26:
All right, well, welcome back, Freight Nation. Man, am I glad to see you guys and hear you guys and be able for you to hear the program today because I love talking to owner-operators. If you guys have watched Freight Nation much, you probably heard me say it over and over, my absolute just respect for the owner-operators in the United States. And it’s been that way since 1998 when I got in the market. So Freight Nation today is really a really cool episode, one of my favorites, because I love it when I get to talk to the truck drivers that are out there going up and down the roads, really making this happen because without a truck, as we all know, nothing gets anywhere. And without truck drivers, man, these trucks aren’t safe and they don’t operate efficiently. They don’t get the goods delivered. So I love America’s truck drivers. And here’s what’s fun, Freight Nation. Here’s what’s fun. The guy that’s going to be on today, I actually got to meet face-to-face at a recent conference. We’ll talk about that. And he came up to me and he goes, hey, you’re a Brent. And I was like, I am. Like that, he kind of surprised me. So, boy, what a great opportunity today for you to learn. Look, we’re going to talk about it new things, even on how would you become an initial inter-operator when you first get your authority, when you first get in the marketplace, on how to get freight when you’ve got almost a brand new authority and how to build your fleet out, those sort of things. Because my guest today has done a lot of those, that really deep dive, even though he’s fairly new to the marketplace. All right. So joining me today on Freight Nation is Ilya Denisenko out of Chapel Hill, Tennessee, which is very close to my birthplace, Nashville, Tennessee. So, Ilya, thank you so much for joining us on Freight Nation today.
Ilya – 00:01:51:
Thank you for having me. Good morning, Brent.
Brent – 00:01:53:
Yeah, man, absolutely. Well, look, Freight Nation, you’re probably noticing, if you’ve watched any of the podcasts in the past, his setup on his camera is a little different because, you know what? Ilya’s not sitting in an office somewhere. Ilya, where are you today?
Ilya – 00:02:05:
I’m in the mobile office here at my Volvo in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on my way down to New Orleans.
Brent – 00:02:11:
I got you. So you’re moving. You’ve pulled over. I appreciate that you’ve pulled over. What type of Volvo do you run?
Ilya – 00:02:16:
2020 Volvo VNL sleeper cab, 264 gear ratio has almost 700,000 miles on there. But on average, it gets over nine miles per gallon, which is pretty good. Yeah. So far, it’s so good. My biggest issue with maintenance has been tires, and I’m pretty happy with that.
Brent – 00:02:35:
Yeah, fantastic. What size engine do you run in your vehicle?
Ilya – 00:02:37:
Just a regular Volvo D13 engine.
Brent – 00:02:40:
Okay.
Ilya – 00:02:41:
Standard.
Brent – 00:02:42:
Here’s why I asked this, Ilya, is that what’s funny is when I talk to people about truck drivers, they have a certain sort of something stuck in their head. And I go, look, when you ever talk to a truck driver, ask them a few questions. Ask them about what type of truck do they drive? What type of engine do they have in their truck? And how do they have it geared? Because they have PhDs on what it takes to run a truck because that’s their operation. That’s their office. And if it’s not running well, and you even mentioned the fourth thing, tires, because they’re so good at managing those things. If you have a failure, your business is completely shut down. So that’s really cool. So you’ve been pretty happy. You bought a used Volvo. I’m going to guess when you got into the operation.
Ilya – 00:03:16:
Yep. I’m just about 100,000 miles on it that I put onto it. I bought it with 570,000 miles on there, about something like that out of Memphis, Tennessee.
Brent – 00:03:27:
Okay. Well, I love for the story to be told. I love for people to hear the story of the people that come on Freight Nation, because I think that’s the most compelling thing, because they need to know you as a person. They need to know why you got in the business, why you operate a certain way. So, man, I’m looking forward for the Freight Nation watchers and listeners to hear in your story today. So start out with, all right, what made you crazy enough to get into trucking, and what drew you into trucking? Talk about how you started out there.
Ilya – 00:03:52:
It’s actually a little bit of a funny story. I used to run restaurants before I used to work in hospitality. I have a degree in culinary arts and a degree in hospitality administration, all that type of stuff. And at one point, I was looking for work. I think at that point, I worked at Yelp, actually. And I was looking for jobs. And once in a while, an ad would pop up for a trucking job. And I had a friend that just got his CDL not long before, and I would send him all the posts for it. And some of them looked pretty interesting. It was like whatever sign-on bonus, whatever per mile pay. And I would send it to him. Eventually, I was like, why am I sending it to him? I like driving. I can do this. This sounds better than working in the restaurant. And that’s how I got into that. I went to Prime. I got my CDL there. I got pretty lucky. I got an old-school driver. He grew up in the Bronx. He took me to every downtown of every city in America. So before I even finished and got my own truck with them, I had been backed into every dock in every downtown in America. So I got pretty good experience there, which seems to be a hit and miss from what I hear.
Brent – 00:04:55:
All right, first off, before we jump into the being with Pran, you have two degrees in the culinary arts. I think that’s fascinating. Are you a certified chef or are you a certified? What is your certification in the culinary arts part?
Ilya – 00:05:09:
First, I got the associates in culinary arts, which is mostly just cooking, which is what most people have, like in the kitchens. And then they work their way up. And I also have a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts management, like hospitality management.
Brent – 00:05:21:
Yeah, yeah.
Ilya – 00:05:22:
And I actually did my externship in way upstate New York at a resort. So it was like a big casino resort with a hotel and had 10 restaurants and everything. And I went to the CIA, the Culinary Institute in New York. So it’s like they say it’s like almost like an Ivy League school. Almost all the chefs there, they’re out of the army. They throw the plates and everything. They yell at you. If they do like tours to the public there, you could be walking down the hallway and it’s common to see like somebody running out of the classroom crying. And it’s very rough. We started, I think with just over 200 people in my class. And by the time I graduated, it was like 36 maybe.
Brent – 00:06:01:
Wow.
Ilya – 00:06:01:
And it was very rough, but then when you get out in the real world, it’s everything’s easy. Gordon Ramsay seems like a nice guy.
Brent – 00:06:09:
So you’re saying when people are running out of the room crying, it’s just like trucking.
Ilya – 00:06:12:
Yep. Right.
Brent – 00:06:15:
Because it’s hard. You’ve got to apply yourself no matter what. So I remember you telling me about this when we met. Actually, Freight Nation, Ilya and I met out in Fort Worth, Texas at a conference. And we’ll talk a little bit about that as well. But I was just fascinated. I’m like, culinary arts? How did you go from culinary arts to trucking? And so tell me, what made you want to swap from what you maybe thought was, when I’m sure it still is, a passion of yours to something that’s very different, like transportation?
Ilya – 00:06:41:
Well, I thought about it like a similar kind of work. It’s the same long hours. You’re going to work nights, weekends, holidays, same as restaurants. Except here, you’re running your own operation kind of thing. It still involves some of the same stuff. Your restaurants, too, there’s a very small profit margin. You have to be efficient. You have to be competitive. And the restaurants I ran were in New York and New Jersey. So there’s a million competitors everywhere. You have to stay on top of everything. If you don’t, you’re going to fall behind. So in a way, it’s similar. Here, in some places, you get treated better. You get paid better the environment’s better. You don’t have customers yelling at you thing. And that’s actually what I thought about implementing down the road. If I get to the point where I could hire and train drivers, I would like to recruit them out of restaurants because it’s a similar but slightly better environment.
Brent – 00:07:29:
Wow. Well, maybe that’s a new pool that the American Trucking Association and others need to start talking about. Hey, all you people that are in the restaurant business, would you like a more stable career? So, all right. So let’s get back to Prime. So that’s super great, man. So look, no matter where you start, Freight Nation out there, transportation’s got something for you. And Ilya is a great Prime example of that. All right. So you’re at Prime. What year did you start at Prime? And how long were you there before you made your decision this past year in 2023 to go out on your own?
Ilya – 00:07:56:
That was 18 or 2019 in the summer. I worked at Prime. I did their program for the CDL. I drove, I believe, 60 or 70,000 miles. And I did their lease operator program. After that, I drove for Walmart out of the Shelbyville, Tennessee terminal for a little bit. And it was like regional work, all the southeastern states, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama. It was local, but regional. It was interesting. Got very good backing experience, all that kind of stuff. So that was helpful. After that, I briefly worked for a company called Atomic Transport. And that was heavy, up to 120, 130,000 pounds off-road upgrades and everything. The work was rough, but over there, I learned a lot about how to set up a very good work environment for drivers. A lot of the things they did, I want to do it within my own company down the road as well. And I think it shows they did some stuff there that Marten Transport, while paying competitively at times, it showed that was not. But this company, they treated drivers well, even in the much rougher job, everyone stayed there.
Brent – 00:09:02:
Right, right. Fantastic. So Freight Nation, this is interesting about Ilya. So my background is Freight Nation. It came from Overdrive Magazine. I worked there for 15 years and then I came over to Truck Stop. And so I’ve been around owner-operators since 1998 and I’ve done a lot of research on owner-operators. And I know that the typical path is company driver to leased owner-operator to independent business owner. That path usually takes about seven years, which if I’m doing my math right, Ilya, is about around your exact pathway. It takes about seven years. So you’re unique in the standpoint that you used to cook food for a living and now you drive a truck. You operate your own trucking business. But you’re not unique from a standpoint that you follow a pathway through it, which helped you really get your mental muscle, your experience muscle in the marketplace. So Freight Nation, so think about that for yourself when you’re out there because you’re going to hear the rest of Ilya’s story. And it’s really going to, my guess, it’s going to be kind of a textbook on how you can follow the same pattern to find success as well. All right. So Ilya, you followed all the way through Prime. You were a company driver to leased owner-operator. You worked with Walmart. You worked with Atomic hauling heavy stuff, which is really hard to do, by the way. Snoop, you got to be really good to haul heavy stuff. And which used to be, you got to be really specific to haul heavy stuff. I know that. And so that built up to 2023 and something got to you and you said, okay, I’m ready to make a change. And so what got you to the point of saying, nope, putting my flag in the sand, I’m starting my own business and here’s how I’m going to do it.
Ilya – 00:10:29:
Well, actually early when I started driving, I was listening to our friend, Kevin Rutherford.
Brent – 00:10:33:
Yeah. I was wondering when you were going to bring him up.
Ilya – 00:10:36:
Right. This is a little bit way early on. He was talking to somebody and he was talking to them about learning and education. And he said something about how you drive 10 hours a day. That’s a lot of time to learn about something that you don’t know about. And at that time, when I was driving, I was listening to like True Crime, whatever, all these entertainment podcasts. And I was like, that’s a waste of time. So I switched to business shows, everything from startups to operations to finance to new tech companies, this and that. So probably a year or two ago, I started listening to shows about how to buy companies, how to start companies specifically. And I was looking at probably 2023 for most of the year. I was looking at gas station stores, bars, restaurants, all that kind of stuff. And with my friend, we actually even started an e-commerce store. We were running that whole year selling pet supplies. And at the end of the year, I was like, why am I looking at any of that stuff? I could probably run it. But for the last four years, I’ve been listening to business and finance. And then the other half is trucking. I’ve been listening to four years of information about trucking. And I thought about it. I was like, okay, I could probably do it pretty well. There seems to be a set of people that if they follow these things, they do pretty well. So I was like, okay, I’m just going to do all of that. And it should be at least better than buying a gas station or something like that.
Brent – 00:11:55:
Absolutely. So this is one of the things I know that Kevin teaches, and I’ve been around Kevin for more than almost three decades now. He’s always talking about that. You got 10 hours in a truck a day to operate. You can be in the truck and be entertained, or you can learn while you drive. So you just made that change to say, look, I’m just going to, I’m going to improve my situation by learning. And so you started listening to like how to buy businesses, and then you started investing in other businesses. But then you said, no, wait a minute. I want to invest back in myself, right? That’s what you said, I want to invest back in my business. So when you started thinking about investing back into your trucking operation, how did that change things for you?
Ilya – 00:12:29:
I mean, there was a lot more risk, so it was a little bit more stressful, but it was also a lot more interesting because all the decisions I made, it was for myself versus for the company kind of thing, which is a big reason why I went into business for myself. I felt like I did a lot of stuff that would go towards the benefit of the company that went unnoticed here. It would go directly towards myself and my operation. That’s what it’s panning out to be like the result of showing.
Brent – 00:12:55:
Yeah. So that’s another, we’ll talk about that in a second. So that’s another pro tip there Freight Nation. All right. So pro tip one is learn why you drive. I mean, you got all these hours, use them as productive for yourself. And then this is something that Ilya just said, and the best person to invest into is yourself right here, because the brand you own, the brand you control is you. So invest into that first, make you the best you can. And it’s amazing how that pays off. But before we pivot into that. When was the date that you started your business? When was the independent business start date?
Ilya – 00:13:25:
I formed my LLC in, it was the Thanksgiving weekend last year in 23.
Brent – 00:13:31:
Okay.
Ilya – 00:13:31:
And then I got my authority early January 11th, I believe.
Brent – 00:13:35:
Okay, so we’re now in November this year. So you’ve been 11 months running your own business. So I’m assuming that as soon as you got your independent status, and this is something we’re going to talk about. So we’re going to talk about how do you get freight as a new owner operator. As soon as you started your own business, the freight just, they just were throwing freight at you all the time, right? It was just so easy. Maybe not?
Ilya – 00:13:53:
No, not at all. I knew it was going to be rough and I was prepared. One of the things I did, like going into it, like regardless of getting freight or not, I planned on getting a dollar a mile freight for at least six months. So I knew I was going to have to drive a certain amount. So anything above a dollar a mile, I knew I was going to have to cover that because it’s like going into any business. You don’t know how you’re going to get revenue. But I figured from what I heard previously, I was going to start with the load boards and then network and work my way up, show how well I work. And it seemed right about January, right when I got my authority, the whole freight theft and fraud thing escalated. And everyone I called, they wouldn’t even say any word other than what’s your MC? As soon as I said the number, they would just hang up instantly.
Brent – 00:14:37:
Oh, really? Wow.
Ilya – 00:14:39:
Yeah. So my first big post with my authority was like, I got my truck, everything’s set, everything’s registered. I drove up to Chicago area. I picked up the trailer, ready to go. And then I spent the entire day and I couldn’t get a single load at all whatsoever. And basically from there, I started posting all my content. Previously, people saw that what I was doing to register. They saw my different mindset. I purposely went at it with the attitude of I’m going to do stuff almost opposite of what everyone else is doing. So I had some people reach out. At this point, I think I have four or five brokers that I met and started working with through Twitter and LinkedIn.
Brent – 00:15:20:
So you actually personally met them, like maybe via a phone call or a video conference or something like that?
Ilya – 00:15:24:
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Some of them I met in person after starting to work together. Some of them I brokered carrier summit afterwards.
Brent – 00:15:31:
Right.
Ilya – 00:15:32:
But basically through there, I started getting freight a little bit here and there. Obviously, I had to do a little bit of TQL in the beginning, work my way up through there. C.H. Robinson was pretty decent. I got a pretty good rating on there, and then I got access to better freight.
Brent – 00:15:47:
So you were able to move straight for two of the largest brokers in America, but you had struggle in moving with some other brokers.
Ilya – 00:15:55:
Right.
Brent – 00:15:55:
Wow, that’s a very interesting paradigm. Those are two of the largest players in the world at what they do. So how did you secure freight through TQL and C.H. Robinson? What was your methodology there in being able to work with them?
Ilya – 00:16:07:
Well, actually TQL, the previous summer I was on a trip to Myrtle Beach and I was sitting at a bar and I started talking randomly to the two people sitting next to me and they turned out to be TQL brokers.
Brent – 00:16:18:
No way.
Ilya – 00:16:18:
So I went into this whole thing knowing them, like I had them ready to work with. And then I also had another guy I knew. He worked at Nolan Transportation Group out of Nashville. So I went into this with a little bit of a plan with that. So it was like, okay, I could start with this. I could start with the load board. So yeah, it was TQL, but it was still a little bit of the whole personal relationship kind of thing working there.
Brent – 00:16:42:
Yeah, for sure. And so I’ve been talking about that for a long time, about the power of personal relationships. But in any business, anytime you do business with somebody for the first time, it doesn’t matter if it’s trucking or any other industry. You got to prove yourself a little bit. Now, when you put fraud in the middle of it, people get even more concerned. But when you’ve got a personal relationship with somebody, you can jump on a FaceTime or something else. You can say, no, I’m a real person right here. It solves a lot of problems. That’s obviously the experience you’re talking about here, right?
Ilya – 00:17:06:
Yep. And on top of it too, it’s part of my whole thing in general is put yourself in the other people’s shoes. So most brokers, they talk to, I don’t know how many people per day. Most of them, they’ll never meet. So just the meeting point alone helps you stand out from the crowd.
Brent – 00:17:21:
And look, that’s anywhere in life. And trucking is no different. And I realized that to trucking, we want to be trusted because there’s a lot of great truck drivers out there and truck owners and truck business owners out there. But in this marketplace, we have to prove who we are because of the bad actors that are coming in. So let me ask you, I want to reverse just a little bit. You started in what is thought of as a down market. I like to tell everybody we’re in just a normal market, but when inflation’s high and rates are a little bit lower than they need to be, it’s tough. All right. So you started in a down market. How did you construct your business to be able to be profitable enough to a down marketplace? What are some of the tips you could tell the Freight Nation watchers and listeners that you did yourself to get you through that?
Ilya – 00:17:59:
I mean, just like any business, you get your supplies, you set up a plan for your product, whatever. And then you sell it, whether it’s a service or whatever. So here you got to get all your supplies and everything and not waste too much money doing it. So obviously the first truck, I didn’t go buy a $200,000 truck. I bought mine for 47,000 off of Facebook Marketplace.
Brent – 00:18:20:
Did you really? It was only 47K. Wow.
Ilya – 00:18:23:
Yeah. And I shopped around too. I spoke to the experts again, like Kevin Rutherford and the other people that seem to be well aware of what they’re doing. In trucking, the biggest expenses are fuel maintenance, right? So maintenance. A lot of that could be prevented when you buy the truck. If you buy the truck correctly, maybe it won’t break down as often. Maybe it’ll run a little bit better. Maybe it’ll use a little bit less fuel to drive that same mileage. So I used their tips and information. I looked around trucks. It was longer than I wanted it to be. But at the same time, my truck is running pretty well. My truck right now with almost 700,000 drives better than some of the trucks I’ve driven before with 150,000.
Brent – 00:19:03:
So let me ask you, Ilya, is it your advice to owner operators to do your homework first?
Ilya – 00:19:09:
Yeah. And even when it seems annoying and frustrating, when you think you found almost the right truck, still keep going and find the actual right truck. It’s like, there were a few times where I was like, maybe I’ll cut this corner. I think it was the idle time that was a little too high in a few trucks, but the rest of the trucks seemed fine. I was like, maybe I’ll just get any weights and I held off. This ended up being a lot better and it pays off in the end.
Brent – 00:19:33:
Yeah, for sure. And so do your homework. And then you mentioned something else. And you’ve mentioned this a couple of times through here, even going all the way back to your driver trainer. When you first started at Prime, you talked about this old guy that lived in New York, that went everywhere with you and really helped you understand how to do things. Has it always been a practice of yours to seek advice from others, the people that have been there and done that?
Ilya – 00:19:53:
Yeah, constantly. Same as the business shows that I listen to. It’s one of the biggest benefits. It’s not just the content that they’re saying, not the information, but all the stuff in between. Like the CEOs, all the founders and everything. It’s not just how they built their company. It’s all the stuff in between. Where did they mess up? Where did their sales fall and why? Where did they maybe lose a million bucks and how did they get it back? All that kind of stuff. So all that same kind of stuff works into trucking as well. So you find the right people. And one of the things I learned from those shows also is you look at the results first and then you, you almost build backwards.
Brent – 00:20:28:
Okay. Expand that a little bit. What do you mean by that?
Ilya – 00:20:30:
For example, I’m friends with the. Uh, on social media, a few people that followed Kevin Rutherford’s advice and some of the same people, they went from one truck to multiple trucks. They don’t complain about rates. They don’t complain about the market or the economy. So to me, those are pretty good results. So I’m going to look at those people, see what they’re trying to do, what they’re not doing and follow the same path as much as I can.
Brent – 00:20:53:
Yeah. Wow. It’s almost like wisdom advice. Like your dad would give you something like that. Say, I remember my dad saying, son, you can learn one of two ways. You can learn the easy way or the hard way. The hard ways to do it all yourself and listen to nobody. The, the easy way is to listen to others and all the mistakes they made. So you don’t have to make the same mistakes, easy or hard. You can learn one way or the other. So that’s great advice for owner operators. All right. So you talked about a little bit about planning for the future of your business. First off, let’s just look at these first 11 months that you’ve been operating on your own. How are you doing in your operation? And then how are you doing from a profit standpoint, these first 11 months?
Ilya – 00:21:30:
Well, in the beginning, we were doing a little bit of trial and error. There’s different ways to do stuff. I came out of previously doing local regionals, so we tried local regional runs for the first few from January up until maybe May or June. And there, the rates seemed better. The work sometimes seemed a little bit easier because it was less mileage. I’m also good with local and regional because I like to say I know how to speak to people, so I could get in and out of places much quicker and easier, and many times I’d fit whole additional loads in between. Like before I was supposed to deliver the previous load, I already did a whole additional load in between there.
Brent – 00:22:07:
No way. Okay.
Ilya – 00:22:08:
So with that, it was good, but the profitability of those was not as good because the mileage was low and the routes were worse. It was like more city kind of driving, not highway.
Brent – 00:22:19:
So let me ask you, so let’s just take the first quarter or a couple of quarters where you’re really figuring things out. So let’s take the last three months, last 90 days, because that’s usually what you want to look at in any business. How are you doing on your cost per mile and how are you doing on your profitability?
Ilya – 00:22:33:
Actually, right now, my cost per mile, it’s 26 per mile, about average right now. It was a little bit worse in the summer because I had an APU issue. And in the summer, I was also going through tires a little bit more just because of the hot pavement. Actually, too, that was a little bit of a trial and error. Also, I sped up a little bit for a few weeks. I drove about 70 average versus before I drove maybe about 60 miles per hour average. And that’s worse on the tires. So my tire replacement costs went up. I mentioned that earlier. That was rough on the maintenance. Now, it’s cooler out. I slow down again, and my maintenance has improved. Profitability-wise, my rates are about the same. I could actually read you my average rates per week.
Brent – 00:23:17:
Hang it on. Let’s hear it.
Ilya – 00:23:19:
I believe, actually, my average rates went down, but the profitability went up because the efficiency went up and also the mileage went up. So-
Brent – 00:23:28:
Right.
Ilya – 00:23:29:
Last week was $1.77 per mile. Previous week was $2.08 per mile, then $1.88, $1.83. One week was $2.40, then $1.70 per mile. So, I mean, it’s like from what I hear on your Monday shows with Kevin, this is like well below average sometimes. But at the same time, being efficient, it doesn’t really do much to me because I mentioned like my cost of operation about $1.20-ish, sometimes $1.30-ish. It’s still a room for profit up there.
Brent – 00:23:59:
Oh, for sure it is. I mean, you’re hauling drive-in freight. Am I correct in that?
Ilya – 00:24:02:
Yep.
Brent – 00:24:02:
Okay. The average driving, according to my good friends over at American Truck Business Services, it’s about $1.34 a mile. And that’s without paying yourself and everything. And so you’re still 10 or 15 cents. And depending on how your fuel mileage is, you’re still going to be above the average. And these are good performers at American Truck Business Services. So you’re still doing well. Now there’s always room for improvement. But here’s the thing. And I want to talk about the value of knowing your numbers. And then I want to pivot into the value in going to industry events and investing in yourself. So talk about this because all through this podcast and Freight Nation, please listen to this. This is so important. If you own your own trucking operation, this is so important to you. And if you’re a broker out there dealing with owner-operators, man, encourage them to know this, which is to know your numbers. Our good friend KR, Kevin Rutherford, talks about it all the time. Knowing your numbers. Well, I’m listening to you. Over the last 20 to 30 minutes we’ve been talking, man, you’ve been able to spit your numbers off just like that. Just like that, man. So just super encouraging. Talk to the Freight Nation watchers and listeners about the value of knowing your numbers.
Ilya – 00:25:01:
Same again. It’s like all this stuff, it goes for any business. Like in the restaurant, you don’t know if someone’s leaving the oven on too long. You don’t know where maybe they’re wasting money buying this product too expensive. It just shows where maybe a little bit too much money is going. And then how are you going to catch that if you don’t know your numbers? Maybe all of a sudden you start speeding up to 70 miles an hour for a few weeks. You don’t notice that your fuel cost goes up all of a sudden unless you’re tracking your expenses. All you know is, oh, my revenue is going up because I’m driving faster, but you’re not aware of the profitability. Maybe you’re losing a little bit more money because your fuel economy tanks.
Brent – 00:25:41:
So what you’re saying is if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
Ilya – 00:25:46:
Yep. And you have to be aware of it all the time because it changes quickly. It could be this one day or this the other day, and there’s little stuff in there, like same with maintenance with heat and how stuff wears out, just one little change could be a whole completely unrelated problem that’s just ruining your operation there.
Brent – 00:26:05:
Yeah, for sure. Paying attention to the details. I love that. If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it. That may be the title of this podcast, the theme of things. If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it. So you want to manage something because you want to enjoy your trucking operation. All right, let’s talk a little bit about, because you’ve talked about this multiple times. You’re investing in yourself through educating yourself while you’re driving. You’re learning about new opportunities. You’re also expanding your thought patterns as to, okay, what really can I do in this industry? So let’s talk about two things next, and then we’ll wrap it up. Let’s talk about your desire to go out and go to conferences and go to places where you can continue to learn. And let’s talk about how you want to build your business in the future, because you’re just a one truck operator now, but your aspiration is to go beyond that. So let’s talk about those two things, and then we’ll wrap it up.
Ilya – 00:26:48:
Right. So obviously a big part of why I went into this was to improve my own lifestyle. But at the same time, I saw how other trucking companies were operating, and I learned a little bit here, a little bit there. And I wanted to improve the lives of other drivers as well. And I thought I could make a better job opportunity for someone else as a driver. For example, like I worked at one company, I won’t mention them. They were paying very well at one point, but everyone is leaving. Meanwhile, at another point, that same company was paying very low, but everybody was staying. All that, the difference was management and how they were treating the drivers and the, basically the setup of the company. So it’s not always about money and how you treat the drivers affects everybody quite a bit more. So I took a little bit out of that. I took a little bit out of what Atomic Transport is doing. And I have that all planned into how I would like to treat drivers and how I’d like to hire drivers. And hopefully that’ll help lower my turnover rate and maybe the recruitment costs, which is one of the big expenses for fleets.
Brent – 00:27:57:
Yeah, for sure. You talked about where you learned a lot of the things that developed additional relationships in the industry by going to an event, what the event like where we met at the broker carrier summit in Fort Worth, but that wasn’t your first one to go to. Talk a little bit about what motivated you to take time off and go invest in yourself there and how that returned on the investment for you.
Ilya – 00:28:14:
It seemed to be like there was no other way about it. I had to go there. That’s where all my potential clients would be. There was no way I was not going there. That was factored into all of my plans. I knew I was going there. There were other trucking events, but they were not full of my potential clients. So broker carrier summit, I was like, I got to be there. And I saw the seminars they were doing, the sessions they had there. Some of them were led by you, which were super helpful and interesting and it’s like almost a required tool especially if you’re in your first year of authority. That’s how you bypass the whole new authority issue.
Brent – 00:28:49:
Right. Yeah. Fantastic. Now those only happen two or three times a year. You can actually applying the same sort of methodology. And you did this in the beginning by getting to know the brokers or the shippers that you want to do business with by going and seeing them either in person or getting on a video conference with them. I know sometimes in person it’s hard because it takes money to go see people in time. You can even do it through a video conference and say, I’d like to introduce myself to you. You could even, you know what, here’s a thought. What’s your thought about this? What if you just recorded a video of yourself and sent it to him and said, look, here’s the quality that I am. Here’s my history. Here’s the people you can check on. Here’s a video here. I am a legitimate carrier in this marketplace. Would you say that would be a good approach as well?
Ilya – 00:29:26:
Yeah, exactly. That’s what I do with my social media presence. Every load that I do, every time I arrive early, every delivery I do 24 hours early before the delivery appointment. I post all my activity. I met a few brokers on there and they started working with me right away, even though normally at that point they required a year of authority. I’ve been working with them since my third month and everyone’s happy because I show, hey, I’m a real person. This is how I work. I’m not going to give you trouble. I’m not going to complain about transparency or whatever. I’m just here to work and hopefully we can make some happy clients together kind of thing.
Brent – 00:30:01:
Well, I think it’s been interesting how you’ve continued to document your journey. You’ve posted on social media. You’re active in your marketplace. You do such wonderful things. You were talking about building out your operation. You’re a one-truck operation now. What are your aspirations to build it to? And then talk a little bit about the pathways that you see getting there. I realize you were talking about the drivers before, but what are some of the other fundamental ways in which you have to build sort of the freight opportunities and things like that going into building into a larger operation? And when do you think you might do that?
Ilya – 00:30:29:
I’m actually looking at options this weekend. I’m meeting with my business partner to see which way we want to go with buying additional trucks, whether we want to finance them through the dealership one by one, whether we want to maybe buy a set of trucks. Or one of the options I thought of actually doing is looking at trucking companies that might be for sale, buying them, and implementing my strategies there. Because that’s been an interesting thing with the market lately. I’ve been seeing companies that are for sale somehow profitable, and they’re doing all the stuff incorrectly. So, there’s quite a bit of room for improvement. I’m like, hmm, if they have all the wrong trucks that are constantly breaking down that are getting six miles per gallon, if I improve the maintenance, take them up to nine miles per gallon, just doing some basic stuff, that’s profit additional there.
Brent – 00:31:17:
Yeah, for sure. So you’re planning your business. You’re doing what you did in the beginning, which is you taking your time, you’re planning it out. Are you looking to grow from one to three or one to five or one to seven? What’s your sort of project there? Are you looking at that in a level?
Ilya – 00:31:31:
It depends, which way we decide to go. But ideally, the next step would be, I don’t know, anywhere from 5 to 20. 20 seems like if I shoot for the moon, 20. But also, I mean, a few at the same time would be more manageable. Because at this point, I have a pretty good set of broker relationships. I always have too many where I can’t work with all of them constantly. So if I have more drivers, then I can manage and bounce around between these areas. And I don’t want to let those relationships go down the drain. I want to keep them established and making use of them kind of thing.
Brent – 00:32:07:
Yeah, it almost sounds like you’re trying to take care of the customer there.
Ilya – 00:32:10:
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yep.
Brent – 00:32:13:
Well, that is fantastic. Well, what super great advice, man. What would you close on? How would you close out your advice to owner operators out there? What would be your closing advice?
Ilya – 00:32:22:
I would say before you do anything, just like work on your own mindset. Mindset is a massive thing. Whether you’re going to the gym for yourself or you’re running a store or you’re running a trucking company. A lot of people in general just do things just because everyone else does it that way. It’s not necessarily the right way or the best way for you where you are. So think about what you want and what’s the best way to get there with what you have or maybe you can learn something or whatever. Information is free today everywhere. Some people make shirts that say YouTube University.
Brent – 00:32:51:
That’s a great way to close it. Thank you so much for being on Freight Nation today. And Freight Nation, look, please play this back over and over. Listen to these pro tips from a guy who’s done it the right way. He’s constructed it. He’s sought good advice and wise counsel. He’s taken his time to make his decisions. He’s continued to educate himself. He is totally invested in their relationships in order to get over those hump and even to protect himself against fraud in his current marketplace. But he’s also taken his time and he’s got these aspirational to continue to learn to be able to grow his business. And so what a great story today, Ilya. Thank you so much for being on Freight Nation today.
Ilya – 00:33:24:
Yep. Thank you for having me, Brent.
Brent – 00:33:26:
You know it well, all right, Freight Nation, that’s a wrap. And don’t forget to work hard, to be kind, and to stay humble. Thanks for listening and watching Freight Nation. We do appreciate you highly.
Outro – 00:33:36:
On behalf of the Truckstop team, thanks for listening to this episode of Freight Nation. To find out more about the show, head to truckstop.com/podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you hit subscribe so you don’t miss any future episodes. Until then, keep on trucking and exploring the open roads with FFreight Nation: A Trucking Podcast.
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