Suprise Trucking, since its semi-finalist placement in Overdrive's 2021 Small Fleet Championship, has contracted in size just a bit, but in part that's a testament to the company's success in setting up owner-operators leased there for success, according to co-owner Bryon Stoll. An eight-unit fleet at this time last year, there have been a couple departures from the company among owner-ops leased on.
One felt he wasn't cut out for the sometimes-unpredictable scheduling in their principally reefer-hauling business. Another owner experiencing equipment troubles and extended maintenance delays with parts-procurement difficulties, among other personal challenges, moved over to a Suprise company truck to regroup. A third, according to Stoll, took to heart the lessons he and his wife – Suprise President Holley Stoll – tried to impart about business management. That owner "listened to what we were teaching," said Bryon, "made and saved the most money he has ever made in his life, and could afford and wanted to operate under his own authority, and we helped him with that."
The company "hated losing him," Bryon added, but "we are still friends and we still help each other whenever possible, and we are proud of him for advancing," happy to have been one of "his stepping stones to get to where he wanted to be." Though the Stolls lost a dependable partner, they made good on part of the company's mission. "I’m obviously going to miss" the revenue generated to add to the company's growth -- 2021 was a record year -- "but at the same time, you know you’re helping somebody accomplish their goals and get to the place they want to be."
That's at least part of the motivation behind the New London, Wisconsin-based seven-truck fleet's mission, to be a hand up for others connected to the business, whether truck owners, company drivers or customers the company partners with.
"Back in the day, you get a truck and you want to make a million dollars. You go out and run and run and run," Bryon said of adding to the business. "The more miles you put on the more money you make. Well, I don't like that idea because my butt starts to hurt. It gets sore. So we try to work – work smarter, not harder. And it's working really, really good for us."
The company currently contracts with four owner-operators and owns three company trucks.
