It seems as if it were only about a meal ago, but it was years and years in the past when I started spearheading initiatives in the realm of Bellboy’s logistics program.

As I was welcomed into the Bellboy family and our decades old distribution companies, my perspective on what really mattered regarding my ambitious professional career evolved astronomically. 13 years later, I raise my family and laze about on my farm purchased with ill-gotten gains as a preeminent drug dealer. A common day, legal bootlegger. The purveyor of the Devil’s drink; gorgeous, delicious, intoxicating alcohol.

I was thrown into this racket with merely more than a week’s training. I was given contact information for current transportation vendors, but few records or instruction on metrics/procedure. Most of these fellows were based in my one and only home state of Minnesota. Back hauls were our bread and butter with most carriers going to each coat and some south with Minnesota born products. They needed merchandise to fill their motor carriages for the trip home and I had plenty of sweet hooch to keep them humming. My main challenge has been juggling the necessity for ridiculously low prices to remain afloat in the highly competitive Minnesota liquor market whilst nourishing local relationships to keep myself on the radar of the reliable rumrunners. We attempt to plan, but with market swings and impulse pallet buys from key clients, I might need product two days before yesterday. I ask for the world and give but a slab of stone.

My proprietor of Kentucky transportation as far back as memory serves was a northern Minnesota outfit. The service was satisfactory and the reliability was upwards of 90%. Though, some weeks they did not have trucks. This forced me to explore outside of our business relationship. The dispatch representative jokingly referred to this as “cheating on him” as if we were in a sustained romantic relationship. Soon I found out why he was so quick to discourage said exploration. He was screwing me! I was simply aghast. A trusted accomplice was charging me a few hundred dollars, if not more, over the market price of certain Kentucky shipping lanes

I reached out to other local transportation firms that had earned my trust to obtain quotes for various pick- up scenarios. With no acceptable resolution, I swallowed my pride and a hi-ball of Beam and called a friendly competitor, Johnson Brothers in St. Paul, MN. One suggestion was made; SAV Transport.

With all the excitement and intoxication, I don’t remember the first contact. But, I will always remember my first interaction with Matt Weldele. He was, and continues to be to this day, so enthusiastic about the shipping industry and all the benefits he himself and his organization could provide. I would soon come to find out his enthusiasm was not misplaced. A fleet of trucks, a top notch dispatch staff and completely adequate pricing to boot! All of these aids at my fingertips! Like a monkey in the West African jungle, I need all the aids I can get.

The assistance with Kentucky shipments was immediate and more than satisfactory. If SAV didn’t have a truck when I needed it, Matt would search out other options and report back to me nearly instantaneously with possible solutions. His best promise kept was to never over-promise. He tells it like it is. People in this industry will lie to your face just to get their foot in the door. Matt and Sheryl have been the most consistently honest colleagues I’ve ever had the pleasure of doing business with. Since Kentucky went so swimmingly, I tore down my wall of distrust built up by the stones of dead Charlatans and mortared with the souls of hastily destroyed discontents so to let the glimmering blaze of SAV’s sun shine upon my other facets, that is; the rest of America.

My personal goals in life have already been bested. With the help of SAV and their tremendous staff, my professional goals are on the same path. Our costs are down whilst our satisfaction is up. Nearly every delivery is on time and, if not, the reason for the delay and updated ETA is communicated straightaway. But, fortunately, this rarely happens. Their methodology matches with mine. Little change was needed on my part to mesh with SAV’s style.

In summation, SAV truckers and staff are A+, 100% Prime Cut, 98 Point Wine awesome. They should rightfully dominate the trucking industry for decades to come.