Old751 - Sierra's Story

Old751 - Sierra's Story

How on earth did I ever find myself here, thought Sierra. Wait, I know, we drew straws and I lost. I have a feeling that Jan and Jill may have rigged the draw. Either way, I would have ended up there eventually.

Entrepreneur E-zine had been requesting to do this article about one of the biggest family owned and ran businesses in the world for a year and a half, and the trio had run out of valid and invalid excuses not to delay before the e-zine just made something up about them.

Sierra would talk about their trucking company, the largest women owned one in the world. The company employs over seventy percent women, minority, and veteran drivers. Jill would be discussing the chain of Cafes and Truck Stops, that had just opened their fifteenth location across eight states, along with the additional chains of faster food eateries that rounded out the company's portfolio. Jan would be talking about the real estate empire that grew exponentially every year.

The interviewer had submitted a list of questions and topics that they wanted to cover with each of them and the girls wisely had secured total editing rights before any article could be published. All three of them highly valued their privacy and the philanthropic work of the company. A lesson they had learned from their parents; you did things because it's the right thing, not because you might get accolades for it.

Joe, the writer from the magazine, or online publication now, knew that he was in trouble when he dissed the nondescript office in the hard to get to little burg of Smithville. He was summarily put in his place by Jan, who let him know in no uncertain terms that if he wasn't happy that they didn't operate out of a pretentious office building in a big city then he might just be writing for the wrong e-zine. She went on to say that if that were the case, he should probably go look for a job at Forbes and deal with the corporate assholes instead.

Joe apologized profusely and begged forgiveness, which Jan quickly gave him. In doing so she also had set the tone as to exactly who was in charge of the direction and tone of the interview. The interview took place in the company conference room, which also served as Sierra's living room most of the time. Momma J and Papa had planned well when they built their house all those many years ago. Yes, they did have an office where all the legal business work took place, but the weekly team meetings and planning sessions were held in the comfort of the overstuffed chairs and couches of the family room.

There were cameras recording the interview so Joe wouldn't have to rely on scribbled notes, especially since the interview would be edited for video release later. Joe introduced the three women who ran the Lost C&TS/751 Company to his audience and gave a brief description of what parts of the company they oversaw. All three nodded at his accurate portrayal of their roles. He then described what their relationship was to which they also agreed.

Joe asked Sierra to tell her story about becoming a part of this family. Sierra started at the very beginning of her narrative.

"My birth mother was a pregnant high school graduate without much of a future other than working her entire life to try to make ends meet. Auntie Gayle took a chance on Momma L and hired her as a waitress at the Lost Café. Momma L loved the job and meeting all the new and different people that came to the Café."

"She worked hard and was hoping to make a go of life and not waste the chance she had been given. She worked her entire shift the day I was born, in fact, Aunt Suzy thought that she was going to have to deliver me on the way to the hospital."

Momma J and the Aunties made sure that Momma L and grammy had food in the house and even though Momma L had only worked a few months at the Café, assured her that she had a job when she was ready to come back, and all the regulars were asking about her."

"Momma L was off for 6 weeks and was going to go back to work on Monday when some of her friends invited her to go out and party before she did. Grammy, who was a single mom herself told Momma L to go and have fun because it was going to have to last a long time."

"Momma L was doing the things that most eighteen-year-olds did in those days and they were out riding ATV's and four-wheelers feeling young and invincible. The ATV Momma L was in clipped a tree and rolled into a ravine and she was thrown out, landing hard on a rock outcropping, breaking her neck, and paralyzing her pretty much from the neck down."

"Grammy was not prepared to care for a paralyzed daughter and a six-week-old baby. Momma J and Papa took me in as conservators. By this time Momma J had pretty much turned the Café over to Aunt Suzy and Aunt Gayle so she had time to raise a baby. I am told that I was with Momma L every day, even when she thought it was a waste of time because she would never be able to hug and hold me again."

"As I grew older and started school, I would stop by her house every day after school and stay till Momma L was drifting off to sleep. I would tell her all about school and what boy I liked and what my friends did. Grammy and Momma L got an insurance settlement and I think that Momma J and Papa helped them a lot."

"I had a toy truck that Papa found for me when I was little that looked just like Old751, who, I was told, was responsible for a lot of the good things in my life. They described to me the way I would get so excited when I saw Old751 that they wanted me to always have her close, I used to talk to her like some kids talk to their stuffed animals and sometimes she talked back. When I was nine years old, she rolled off the shelf above my bed and woke me up. A voice told me that Momma L was going away and I needed to go call her."

"By that time, we had set up a way for Momma L to make and answer video calls and talk with me. I got out of bed and asked Momma J if I could call Momma L. At first, I thought she was going to tell me no because it was so late, but Papa saw that I was clutching my truck and told her to let me call."

"I got to tell Momma L that I loved her, and it was okay to go and that I would always remember her and would see her later. Momma L passed a couple of hours later, she came and hugged me in my dreams."

"Grammy passed a couple of years later. I was only 11 but I pretty much moved in with her while she fought cancer. I think caring for Momma L had taken a lot of the fight out of her, but she put on a brave front for me. Momma J was there a lot too, Grammy really didn't have anyone else."

"Momma J and Papa did adopt me after Grammy passed just like they told Momma L they would. If my birth father ever knew he was my parent, he never came forward and Momma L never talked about it."

"Life after that was mostly a normal childhood. Jill and Jan, Uncle Jack and Aunt Jen had always treated me like I was blood family, in fact, Jill and Jan took me in more like a little sister and really taught me what it meant to be a part of this family. I had no idea that this family was so important to so many in this town."

"They also helped me to navigate my way growing up in Smithville with the legacy of my family because they had already been through it."

Joe stopped me for a moment and asked if Jill or Jan had anything to add up to this point. Both declined but did give me the signal that I was doing good.

I continued, "By the time I was big enough to reach the pedals I made Papa teach me how to drive the trucks. I think he owned six at that point. For my eighteenth birthday, Papa took me to get my commercial driver's license. Old 751 was still my favorite but Papa wasn't ready to give her up yet, so I drove any of the other trucks when I was home from school and summers until Papa bought the Lone Wrangler from his friend Charlie when he retired. The Lone Wrangler was a cabover just like Old751, but a few years newer and a darker shade of blue. When Papa told me the story of the Lone Wrangler, I fell in love with her as well and was happy to drive her. I had been riding shotgun with Papa for so many years that every delivery location knew who I was when I pulled in."

"I had noticed over the years that some of the few woman drivers were not always treated very well by the dock foreman's and their crews. I must have made myself a mental list because it became important later."

"I graduated college and was working full time for 751 Trucking. Sometimes driving but mostly doing the scheduling, hiring, and running the business. Uncle Jack and Aunt Jen had retired to Florida. Jan was managing the property division, had gotten married and had a couple of beautiful kids, Jen, the over achiever, married a guy with two kids and then they had a couple of their own. Momma J was in her glory running the best daycare in Smithville."

"I was doing some serious dating and had possibly found the right guy after several failed attempts. Papa was still escaping the chaos at home by taking runs every couple of weeks and always took Old751 when he did. She was getting old and tired, but she never let him down on a run."

"Life moved forward until that one day. Papa wasn't feeling very well but took a run for me when I found myself short drivers. It was a short run and he insisted that he would be fine, it was only a couple of hours, so I let him take Old751 and head out. His story was that he started having some mild chest pains shortly after pulling out. Old751 started acting up shortly after. Finally finding a place to get pulled over to check out what Old751 might be ailing from, his arm went numb, and his chest felt like someone was sitting on it. He was about to dial 911 went he noticed that he was stopped just outside a hospital emergency room."

"He was able to get Old751 shut down and locked up before walking across the parking lot and into the ER. It wasn't until he was in a room, and all hooked up to the monitors, that he was able to call Momma J and let her know what was going on. I had no idea that Momma J's old Firebird could go that fast and I had never experienced flying while still having four wheels on the ground."

"Four stents and a bypass later, Papa was looking better than he had in months. Momma J took his truck driving privileges away and Old751 was officially passed down to me. Unfortunately, I knew that Old751's days on the road were numbered but she was never going to leave the family. Papa did get better but Momma J worried over him like a mother hen and he was never very far from her sight. For all the time he had been out on the road over the last thirty years, Momma J was keeping him close to home now. The older nieces and nephews that were helping watch the babies stepped up to take over, so she had time to dote on her new charge. Papa really didn't seem to mind that he had become the focus of her attentions again."

"I took over the trucks and therefore assumed my role in the next generation of the family. Papa was thrilled with the fact that he had taken one old truck and brokered himself into an eight-truck fleet with more jobs than they could handle most of the time. I wanted more, a lot more."

"I had found myself a guy that was up to my overly high standards of marriage material and was willing to become a partner in life and work. He knew my background and I knew his. I loved his company, and just like Momma J had told me about Papa, my heart skipped a beat every time I saw him. It also didn't hurt that he was a proven diesel mechanic and loved my old trucks just like Papa and I did."

"Old751 approved of him too, which was a must for me. We had a wedding out at the lake just like Momma J and Papa. Jan and Jill were my maids of honor. Jimmie had two brothers that wouldn't stop arguing over which one was the best man and who was the second best. Thank goodness he had asked them both at the same time so they couldn't argue over that. Papa proudly walked me down the aisle while Momma J fought back tears. Oh, I also had six flower girls and ring bearers "

"Over the next few years, I increased the family by three kids and the trucks by another eight. A couple of the nieces loved caring for the little ones so much that they started their own official daycare. The family kids were watched at no cost as the family backed the venture. Others were charged a more than fair income-based fee and it was open to all. There were after school and summer programs for all the town kids. Momma J helped when she could, but she and Papa were finally able to do the traveling they had always hoped on doing."

"751 Trucking became the parent company of the firm that Papa worked for when he met Momma J. Steve's son, Steve Jr., wasn't a bad businessman, Steve had never really trained him to take over and he struggled for several years until he wasn't able to make ends meet anymore. We bought a controlling interest, left Steve on as manager, and brought in one of our trained people to run things. The company name stayed. We just made it a subsidiary of 751 Trucking on paper."

"Pretty much the same thing with Thomson Trucking when they found themselves in the same situation. The only difference was I had stolen their best mechanic and made a husband and father out of him. When other independent firms caught wind of what we had done for those two, we suddenly had a glut of requests to buy up dozens of firms. I had to hire a bunch of accountants and investigators to figure out which ones had real investment value and the ones just looking for a quick way to get themselves out of trouble from bad management."

"In the first eighteen months, we bought four more trucking companies and rejected forty-five others. Thanks to Jan and Jill and their thorough training program, we were able to place a very competent and loyal CFO at each location. I felt that we now had enough clout in the trucking business that I started to impose my own set of rules and standards, not only for our companies but for those who we dealt with on a regular basis. I acquainted myself with all the driving instructors in a five-state area. Those whom I liked and felt thought similarly as I did, would send me students to look at after they graduated."

"What was I looking for? Drivers that, first were good and confident with their skills, second, anyone striving to better themselves for their family and future, third, strong willed individuals that were willing to look for a better way to do things and felt comfortable enough to offer their opinions when they found one, and lastly, being a woman or minority or a veteran scored you extra points."

"Next, I turned my attention to the industries that needed our truck drivers to move their goods or get goods delivered to them. Over my years as a driver, I had witnessed far too many cases where drivers were insulted or made to feel less than by a misogynistic or racist dock foreman and then usually his crew. I met with every new driver that we hired as well as all our employees. I let them all know, regardless of race, sex, gender identity, age, or religion that I was also a trucker, heart and soul and I along with the power of this company had their backs should they ever be degraded or talked down to or insulted while on the job with us."

"I did know what effect that may have on the rest of the company as well and with the backing of Jan and Jill, that policy was implemented companywide, from us, down to the janitorial staff, and it included any contract employees that we would sometimes have to hire."

"It didn't take a week and I had one of our drivers on the phone with me. She was a black woman that had been with us for three years and had always had trouble at this one location. I knew the place and the people, and it was no surprise that it was my first complaint. I took down all the information she had along with the people involved and the details of what happened. They had made her move her truck four times into small and harder to get into dock slips while standing back and watching the little black girl struggle to get her big truck backed in with six inches of clearance on both sides then made her pull out again because they had forgotten to open the swing doors on the trailer."

"I waited until I knew the CEO was going to be leaving for his weekly golf/drinking date with the rest of the old codgers he hung with. I called his direct line knowing that he would pick that one up. He wasn't happy to hear my voice. I made meaningless small talk just to delay him from leaving. He finally got short with me and told me that he had a meeting that he had to be at and did I need something. Good, I thought, he is pissed now so I let him have it with both barrels. I informed him of the complaint that one of my drivers had about the way she was treated at his warehouse dock, detailing times, and names of those involved."

"He was mad enough from being held up from his tee time that he blurted out just what I was expecting to hear. Ahh, did the poor little girl get her feelings hurt? Maybe you should hire real drivers that can take it then. And he slammed the phone down in my ear. I gave him forty-five minutes to get on the golf course laughing it up with his buddies about how he put that little girl in her place, calling him and complaining about how his people treated one of hers."

"I called his personal cell phone; he declined my call. I called again, sent to voice mail. I called his burner phone, the one he used for his mistress, he answered, screaming what the F do you want? I calmly told him that all my trucks were leaving his warehouses, empty, and any trucks that were headed to him with products had been told to return their loads to the sender marking them refused to transport. I was voiding his contract with us on the ethics clause on page eight effective immediately and hung up."

"No, I will not tell you how I got that number." Jan and Jill both giggled at that. "Needless to say, by nine the next morning I was refusing all calls from him, anyone with his company and his lawyers. The idiot even called Papa who told him that he had no say in how I ran the company, (not totally true), and he had to deal with me and that he had really 'screwed the pooch' this time."

"We thought about buying the company when it came up for sale later that year but decided that the culture was just too imbedded. We did hire some good help away from them though. That one call put the rest of our accounts on notice and the reports of problems quickly stopped. We had a few but they seemed to be mostly someone having a bad day and a call and apology would smooth things over. There might have been a few disciplinary things take place along the way but, overall, when a 751 Trucking or one of our subsidiary's drivers pulled on the place, proper respect was given to them."

"Momma J and Papa returned from one of their long trips and Momma J wasn't feeling well. It had been going on for a few weeks and was only getting worse no matter what she tried. She had gone to an urgent care clinic, they ruled out appendix, gall bladder, kidney stones, bowel blockage, and a dozen other things. Her white blood cell count was high but not alarmingly so. We got her into her regular doctor who performed all the same tests and pokes and prods and sticks, except for one the others had never thought to check, a PSA. You see, if you didn't know Momma J for a long time, you wouldn't know that Julie was once John, and she still had her prostate. Her level came back off the chart. A CT scan showed that her prostate was the size of an apple and there were several other tumors throughout her abdomen."

"Even with trips to the best oncologist in the country, nothing could be done that would promise more than a few extra months. Surgery and Chemo and radiation might - might give her another six months but the pain and side effects would not be conducive to a happy comfortable end. The family meeting was full of tears, but her decision was to live out her life as best as her body would allow. Papa was silent through the whole discussion, just staring at his hands as he turned his wedding ring round and round his finger."