In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Henry Albert, President of Albert Transport

Henry Albert is the President of Albert Transport, which he has run for over 25 years. He has been involved in every aspect of the business, from driving trucks to participating in truck shows and creating the company’s sales and marketing strategies. He also contributes to the Team Run Smart website, a dedicated trucker and Freightliner industry pro community.

Episode Highlights:

[03:01] Henry’s career started with private carriers. The first was a food service business that was a standalone division from the main company. When their salesman left, the business changed and their product changed. Henry started taking samples along on his routes, building up his sales skills. He moved from there to another private carrier, where he was in charge of their three trucks that they ran. He was in the office one day and he heard the high-up boss talk about the “idiots” in the warehouse. To Henry, it was funny, because he could speak to any department and they would blame another department for the low performance of the company, and he said as much to the manager. Within a year, the company became more holistic and they went from ranked 38th to 2nd in the country. From there, Henry moved into setting up his own business.

[18:54] Often, shippers don’t want to do business with owner-operators because they are only one truck and one person. When asked his main piece of advice to convince them to do business with him, Henry answers toothpaste. No, it’s not just to make sure you have fresh breath. He shares a tale of making a business plan to show someone, purposefully making it the worst possible scenario but explaining that he would be able to support himself and his family on it, the other man leaned back in his chair and asked him why anyone would ever consider him to haul their freight? Henry was given a week to come up with an answer, even though he was ready then. When he got home, there was a sample of Colgate toothpaste in his mailbox. He normally used Crest, and so started thinking “why would anybody use Colgate?” He’d hit his jackpot. People are loyal to their brands, and shippers already have someone hauling their freight before you walk in the door. So the question became, how could he switch them to his brand? He realized that he could learn from the toothpaste sample and offer introductory rates to give them a glimpse into his service before upping the price to his normal rates.

[24:27] Henry has always been passionate about efficiency. When you’re running a business, of course you’ve got to provide a quality service, but you also have to be aware of your operating costs and the fact that markets could get tight and you’d have to lower your rates. As an owner-operator, one of Henry’s biggest considerations is fuel. Everything you can do to save fuel is worth doing, you don’t need to go faster than it would take to get there on time. Until 2007, he had never idled his truck overnight, and he claims that is how he can afford to pay for his son’s college. His trucks now average 10 miles a gallon, crushing the typical average, all through stacking and running the truck right. 

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