Family Atmosphere Drives Success
Florida’s Allied Trucking Sees Double-Digit Growth
The Allied Trucking family of companies is one of Florida’s largest trucking operations. Since its launch in 1984, the business has maintained a reputation for reliability and responsiveness in serving the trucking and hauling, demolition and contaminated materials removal needs of its customers.
With existing operations in Miami, Palm Beach, Tampa and Orlando, Allied Trucking plans to expand to Jacksonville this year. Alejandro Cusco, Vice President of Operations and Finance, explains that the family-run company comes from humble roots. His father, uncle and two operational business partners co-own the company. Sixty-five employees are scattered across the state.
“When the company was first started, it had just a handful of trucks,” he says. “Little by little, it’s grown and along the way, we’ve tried to foster a family culture.” As a result, employee turnover is not typical for the business. In fact, some employees have been working there for more than two decades. “It speaks a lot about who we are as a company, and what we do for our people,” Cusco adds.
Since 2013, Allied Trucking has grown from a fleet of 250 trucks to more than 600 trucks. As one of the largest sand and gravel haulers in the state, the company doesn’t actually own any trucks. Truckers own their own trucks and work as independent contractors for the company. “We pay our truckers every week,” Cusco notes. “That’s not seen often in this industry. We also treat them with respect and professionalism. Some of these guys, for example, have trouble reading and writing, and we help them figure out their ticket book without judgment. We’re really there for them. By the same token, we take the job of dealing with the trucker from our customers.”
Another thing that Cusco believes sets Allied Trucking apart is that it serves as an insurance administrator of sorts, with about 400 trucks covered under its insurance. The company negotiates on behalf of the truckers and, due to the size of the policy, is able to get them more reasonable rates than if they tried to get insured by themselves.
“With the volume [of policies] we bring in, we minimize a lot of risk for the insurance company and the truckers get a subsidized rate of insurance,” Cusco explains. With the company’s help, each of its truckers pay on average around $10,000 per year for a $1 million insurance policy. Without its help, Cusco estimates they would be paying anywhere from 20 to 60 percent more.
The truckers also don’t have to pay for the policy upfront. They often can split the cost for insurance into equal weekly payments.
Staying Flexible Keeps Customers Happy
The company continues to grow and build its customer base through a unique business model in which employees are treated like family, truckers are respected and the customer is always right. The results speak for themselves. Allied Trucking has seen double-digit percentage revenue growth year over year for the past five years.
When it comes to clients, the company aims to send a representative to a new job site for a few days so everyone understands the work flow the client wants, and then every so often after that to ensure the job is running as promised. Dispatchers are available from as early as 7 a.m. every day to help customers and truckers if needed in case, for example, someone gets lost or has a problem. Often, they give their cell phone numbers to the truckers in case there is an accident or they need something earlier. Some of the company’s phones start ringing as early as 5 a.m. Constant communication with the drivers allows the company to quickly accommodate changes so that a customer’s work schedule is not interrupted.
Customers are generally site developers in charge of the terrain of a development before construction of a building begins.
So if a developer buys a new property and needs to take out the dirt on the site before building a house, for example, they will contact Allied Trucking to take out all the dirt and bring in any materials they may need for drainage, building pads, or whatever else the plans may call for. Customers have included Lennar, KB Home, Bergeron Land Development and Toll Brothers. The company has worked on projects such as Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World® Resort, an Amazon fulfillment center, Tampa International Airport and a port at Cape Canaveral.
Allied Trucking is also flexible with financing for customers and suppliers, and works with all parties in to ensure timely payment.
“Sometimes we let customers that are strapped for cash take 45 to 90 days to pay, when 30 days is more common in our industry,” Cusco says.
Allied Trucking also prides itself in being able to work closely with many minority & disadvantaged businesses.
Taking Care of Employees
Allied Trucking also works hard to keep employees satisfied. When Hurricane Irma recently threatened the state of Florida, the company gave its workers bags of sand to help protect their homes from flooding. It also gave time off and loans for things like house repair, roof replacement or repair, and sending money to family in Puerto Rico to travel back to the U.S. when the country had no electricity.
This help also extended to other people across the state who needed sand bags in preparation for the hurricane. Specifically, the company donated sand, trucked it over to the city’s designated site and had some of its employees go out there and put the sand into smaller bags. They then helped distribute the sand bags to locals so they could place them in front of their doors to help prevent flooding.
Allied Trucking also aims to end each year on a positive note for its employees and their families.
Instead of having a Christmas party at the end of the year, the company takes all of the employees and their families on a weekend cruise to places such as the Bahamas.
“It’s great to see everyone interact outside the work environment,” Cusco says. “We work hard to create a family atmosphere at work, and it’s nice to get together as a team and celebrate our success.”
Looking ahead, Allied Trucking is eager to continue its tradition of growth across the state of Florida with a philosophy of employee appreciation, respect for its truckers and prompt customer service.