Episode Highlights

00:00:00:00 – 00:00:09:07
Unknown
carriers. You have this power. You do you have this power to go in and talk to shippers and talk to people and to see exactly where the opportunity is, because there’s a lot of opportunity out there, especially if you have your own assets.

00:00:09:07 – 00:00:30:20
Unknown
Welcome to this week in Trekking. I’m Amy and today we’re joined by Deshaun Falls, founder of Tenacity Express Free Brokerage who built this business with one core belief when life pushes, push harder. But before we get into it, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an update! Your support helps us keep bringing weekly videos your way. Thank you for joining us Deshaun.

00:00:30:22 – 00:00:42:05
Unknown
Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here. Awesome. Can you start by telling us how you got on into trucking and logistics? So I got into trucking, in about 2012.

00:00:42:05 – 00:00:45:23
Unknown
Actually was a decision that I would have been thinking about my dad as a truck driver.

00:00:45:23 – 00:00:47:13
Unknown
He kind of got us started and everything.

00:00:47:13 – 00:01:00:07
Unknown
He was driving over the road, and I was kind of figuring out, what I would want to do with my life. And, you know, I decided, hey, let’s try this trucking thing out. And I tried it out. Guy with KR England and

00:01:00:07 – 00:01:04:18
Unknown
kind of like, they kind of didn’t like it. It was kind of crazy, just being over the road, being away from family.

00:01:04:18 – 00:01:16:18
Unknown
Different things like that. Dealing with snow. I’m a California baby, so I’m not really, used to dealing with the snow, but, once I kind of got adjusted and it started to, you know, make a career out of it, it kind of. It’s been good to me.

00:01:16:18 – 00:01:19:13
Unknown
And then when did you start Tenacity express.

00:01:19:13 – 00:01:23:05
Unknown
So tonight the Tenacity Express actually started, last year.

00:01:23:05 – 00:01:31:14
Unknown
So previous to all of this stuff, I own my own trucking company for a while. Started off as a company driver. Then I own my own trucks. And

00:01:31:14 – 00:01:33:09
Unknown
in the midst of owning my own trucks,

00:01:33:09 – 00:01:36:08
Unknown
things were kind of challenging as far as cash flow is concerned.

00:01:36:08 – 00:01:38:17
Unknown
Every time we would like to scale, it was pretty pricey.

00:01:38:17 – 00:01:47:10
Unknown
So our next best steps was to try to start a brokerage. When we did, started a brokerage side, a drug company, a brokerage simultaneously. And

00:01:47:10 – 00:01:53:16
Unknown
a brokerage was doing pretty decent. Started to have a little challenges. So Tenacity Express was birthed from that.

00:01:53:16 – 00:02:00:20
Unknown
We partnered with Trinity Logistics, who is now, our partner. And, it started October of last year.

00:02:00:20 – 00:02:03:08
Unknown
and these months that you’ve been operating,

00:02:03:08 – 00:02:11:22
Unknown
here in this channel, we like to give owner operators and carriers, real insights of what is going on in the industry. Could you tell us

00:02:11:22 – 00:02:21:23
Unknown
what are the three most common misconceptions small carriers have about broker profit margins or negotiating rates, and how they can negotiate more effectively?

00:02:22:12 – 00:02:41:09
Unknown
So I think the biggest misconception is that brokers are making a killing on every single load. Some loads. We do make good money on some those we don’t, you know, and the lows that we do make the good money on pretty much makes up for the times that we take losses or, take haircuts or, you know, might not have the best, negotiating power.

00:02:41:09 – 00:03:00:12
Unknown
So I think that’s the biggest misconception that we make a killing on every load. Obviously, the market is cyclical. Sometimes it’s in their favor of the brokers, and then sometimes it’s in the favor of the carriers, you know. I think we’re coming up on a carrier favored market coming up here fairly soon, maybe sometime next year. So yeah, I think that’s the biggest misconception.

00:03:00:12 – 00:03:06:20
Unknown
think carriers can negotiate more effectively by knowing their numbers and being firm about what their numbers are.

00:03:06:20 – 00:03:11:09
Unknown
I talk to carriers a lot. A lot of times I ask them, you know, what do you want to make on this shipment?

00:03:11:15 – 00:03:16:17
Unknown
And I’m giving them the opportunity to tell me. And they don’t have to feel,

00:03:16:17 – 00:03:18:22
Unknown
like I said, disrespect or that,

00:03:18:22 – 00:03:31:05
Unknown
that their number is not feasible. Sometimes the number that you want is out there. And if you hold firm to it and, you know, you make that not necessarily demand, but, you make it known that that’s the number that you would like to run the shipment for.

00:03:31:05 – 00:03:33:01
Unknown
A lot of times that’s the number that goes.

00:03:33:01 – 00:03:40:23
Unknown
Yeah. And then on that note what is the biggest mistake you see carriers making when trying to secure freight and build a reliable relationship.

00:03:40:23 – 00:03:54:22
Unknown
just miscommunication. I think as long as you communicate, as long as you keep the lines of communication open, as long as you have your drivers tracking and withholding that paperwork, as soon as they get it as the side and everything like that, I think you won’t have any issues.

00:03:54:22 – 00:04:09:03
Unknown
I think that’s the biggest thing, at least for me. That I run it to is all about communicating. It’s all about updates. You know, if anything’s happened in the transit, letting me know, like, literally, prime example, I had a carrier yesterday.

00:04:09:03 – 00:04:13:15
Unknown
They had a two stop load. They delivered. One was in Spokane, what was in Kent.

00:04:13:17 – 00:04:36:10
Unknown
And the way that the load was structured, it was supposed that they were supposed to go to Kent first and then Spokane, but they took it upon themselves to go to Spokane first and then go to Kent. And that’s not the biggest deal in the world. But is this something that has to be communicated right? The customer is interested in that information, and that’s what helps us to get these customers, is to keep them and to know of everything that’s going on.

00:04:36:10 – 00:04:38:11
Unknown
So yeah, just communication

00:04:38:11 – 00:04:46:08
Unknown
And then what are you specifically looking for when you’re onboarding a new carrier? And how can they establish trust with you quickly?

00:04:46:08 – 00:04:58:09
Unknown
the thing that I’m looking for the most usually, I mean, the perfect or should I say the, the best thing or the, the most beneficial part of working with Trinity is they have a ton of carrier relationships already input into their system.

00:04:58:09 – 00:05:01:18
Unknown
So I’m mostly looking for how many shipments they’ve ran.

00:05:01:18 – 00:05:05:11
Unknown
There’s different things that’s going on with their MSC, but for me personally,

00:05:05:11 – 00:05:17:04
Unknown
I’m just looking for clean communication. I’m looking for updates. I’m looking for, you know, if you’re serious about running this load, I want to look good to the customer. So you gotta make me look good, right?

00:05:17:06 – 00:05:38:14
Unknown
And have you make me feel good. I want to use you all the time. I like to work with the same guys every shipment, if I can. Because those guys who do a great job, you know, especially if they are negotiating the number that they like, they can add these loads all the time. You know, I remember certain situations where you get that contract opportunity and you work with carriers and those same carriers run those loads literally every day.

00:05:38:14 – 00:05:51:08
Unknown
No negotiation, no talking though, nothing. I got five loads this week. Take off five, you know, noticeable. Just just communicating and, provide updates and just letting us know exactly what’s going on at all time.

00:05:51:08 – 00:05:58:16
Unknown
And then how do you decide which carriers to give the loads to, like what factors really mattered beyond just the lowest rate

00:05:58:16 – 00:06:00:22
Unknown
factors that matter for me is relationship.

00:06:00:22 – 00:06:20:12
Unknown
That’s a big deal. Relationship. Consistency. So like I said, I work with Trinity, so we are able to go and look back at nodes, different shipments that they ran, mistakes that they’ve made. And just because they’ve made a mistake doesn’t mean that they’re ousted or they can’t run a low. For us, just being cognizant, hey, you know, these type of things have happened and I’ll let them know this is an important shipment.

00:06:20:12 – 00:06:27:21
Unknown
We need this to go. We can’t have any mistakes on this. Just keep us updated, things like that. So what I’m looking for mostly is relationship

00:06:27:21 – 00:06:38:11
Unknown
is ease of service. How, you know, how easy is it the person to talk to and, you know, are they interested in building a relationship with me? We usually are running the same lows all the time.

00:06:38:11 – 00:06:43:12
Unknown
So the way they communicate with me, that they’re interested in building a friendship or partnership, a real deal,

00:06:43:12 – 00:06:46:19
Unknown
you know, being a partner and, you know, as far as moving our freight,

00:06:46:19 – 00:06:54:05
Unknown
what is your experience with smaller fleets and what do you think could set them apart from larger, more established fleets?

00:06:54:05 – 00:06:56:13
Unknown
I mean, I got a ton of experience with smaller fleets.

00:06:56:13 – 00:07:06:09
Unknown
I used to be a smaller fleet, so I know exactly how that game goes. And I think smaller fleets can really benefit from marketing and promoting,

00:07:06:09 – 00:07:15:14
Unknown
this change in the way they think about their fleet as a. Oh, I know sometimes we think because we’re a small business that we have to operate as a small business, but we have to look at some of the things those bigger companies are doing.

00:07:15:14 – 00:07:23:16
Unknown
What did they do to get big? You know, they market it and promote it. They got, company emails and different things like that. The way the businesses are structured,

00:07:23:16 – 00:07:34:03
Unknown
having somebody as a spokesperson or NS or a salesperson, like, for me, I had to, learn sales. I didn’t know anything about sales. I just was a truck driver when I started this.

00:07:34:03 – 00:07:43:13
Unknown
And shout out to Trevor Jobs, I still have my CDL to this day. I love it, but as you become a business owner, you have to take your might not have been,

00:07:43:13 – 00:07:57:08
Unknown
owner operator, quote unquote and figure out how do I build a business, right. So I think that’s what can really help them is, graduating from that mindset of, just a small fleet to I’m a business, I’m a corporation.

00:07:57:13 – 00:08:10:04
Unknown
I can marketing promote on LinkedIn. I can, you know, get out there and, and build relationships and get contracts and different things like that. Just changing the mindset of, I don’t want to be as a spot market carrier. I want to be a player.

00:08:10:04 – 00:08:17:11
Unknown
how important is technology like yield data tracking apps when a broker like you is evaluating a small carrier?

00:08:17:11 – 00:08:20:09
Unknown
think it’s a big deal. The biggest deal, there’s just the,

00:08:20:09 – 00:08:35:07
Unknown
the tracking. The tracking is huge. A lot of times we send our customers those tracking links to the customers want to know where this freight is, you know, especially high value freight. I move a lot of precious metals, construction materials, different things like that, things that are valuable.

00:08:35:09 – 00:08:48:21
Unknown
And the customers want to know where this stuff is that, you know, oh, that’s the big the biggest deal is the tracking and the obviously tracking to, truck or to is macro point, for keys, different things like that is important. But as far as their EOD,

00:08:48:21 – 00:08:53:20
Unknown
I’ve been seeing a lot of, Samsara Lakes, being passed around.

00:08:53:21 – 00:09:00:20
Unknown
You know, when I move freight with certain carriers. And that’s been pretty good, too. So, you know, the technology is important, especially the sensor. I like it,

00:09:00:20 – 00:09:11:02
Unknown
in your experience, what are the most common mistakes small carriers are making during or after the load is booked? And how can they avoid that to

00:09:11:02 – 00:09:14:00
Unknown
ensure better or smoother relationships with you?

00:09:14:08 – 00:09:34:04
Unknown
Mistakes made during, Like I mentioned earlier, mistakes made during. Sometimes they might make a judgment call on their own, like calling the receiver or just doing different things that we are responsible for. Like if there’s something that’s happening, let me know. And, and I, you know, make that judgment call. Call that receiver, call that shipper, let them know exactly what’s going on.

00:09:34:04 – 00:09:36:10
Unknown
That’s not your responsibility necessarily. So

00:09:36:10 – 00:09:38:00
Unknown
I don’t really like those things.

00:09:38:00 – 00:09:40:18
Unknown
So that’s that’s a huge mistake. And then also,

00:09:40:18 – 00:09:44:04
Unknown
just not be forthcoming with the paperwork and different things like that as you

00:09:44:04 – 00:09:51:18
Unknown
make these stops and make these deliveries, you know, send that paperwork again. Oh, don’t wait, don’t send it in a snap so everybody can get what they need.

00:09:51:18 – 00:10:01:01
Unknown
And then what do you think is the key to seamless payment from a carriers perspective. What the documentation or actions do you need most

00:10:01:01 – 00:10:03:12
Unknown
to ensure that they get paid quickly?

00:10:03:12 – 00:10:07:05
Unknown
Just paperwork. Paperwork is the biggest thing. Paperwork make sure is legible.

00:10:07:05 – 00:10:10:01
Unknown
Make sure that everything that is supposed to be on there is on there.

00:10:10:01 – 00:10:13:12
Unknown
Make sure, in and out times are documented. There’s different things like that. Like,

00:10:13:12 – 00:10:15:06
Unknown
literally. I just got some paperwork,

00:10:15:06 – 00:10:17:05
Unknown
last week of customers asking for it,

00:10:17:05 – 00:10:27:03
Unknown
and it’s all blurry. Like what? You what? You said that you noticed that it was blurry. So I. You gotta make to take the time to fix that and make sure that everything looks good.

00:10:27:08 – 00:10:40:01
Unknown
If you can’t see it, we can’t see it. And if we can’t see it, the customer care is so is like it just causes this whole thing where everything takes longer for something that could have been fixed, you know, right away. So I think this is just the paperwork

00:10:40:01 – 00:10:41:02
Unknown
that’s the most important thing.

00:10:41:02 – 00:10:45:12
Unknown
if you were starting Tenacity Express again today, what would you do differently

00:10:45:12 – 00:10:53:13
Unknown
what I would do from the gate is go after building materials, construction projects, cranes, different things like that. When I started

00:10:53:13 – 00:10:56:10
Unknown
in the industry as a whole, I kind of started off in the reefer game.

00:10:56:10 – 00:10:57:20
Unknown
reefer game was good to me,

00:10:57:20 – 00:10:58:10
Unknown
but

00:10:58:10 – 00:10:59:19
Unknown
I started to notice a trend.

00:10:59:19 – 00:11:06:18
Unknown
I started to figure out that I wanted to be in the heavy all space. I wanted to be in the construction project space. I wanted to be in this space.

00:11:06:18 – 00:11:07:13
Unknown
And

00:11:07:13 – 00:11:19:10
Unknown
had to basically rebuild an entire book of business catered towards that market. So a new carrier base, new customers, different things like that. And it’s been a challenge, but it was finally starting to catch some rhythm, here as of late.

00:11:19:10 – 00:11:19:22
Unknown
So

00:11:19:22 – 00:11:22:01
Unknown
I would just started out the gate doing that.

00:11:22:01 – 00:11:23:23
Unknown
And on that note, now that you mention it,

00:11:23:23 – 00:11:33:03
Unknown
can you tell us some of your interesting stories or maybe a challenge that that comes to mind now that you move a little bit more in the heavy haul space?

00:11:33:03 – 00:11:47:04
Unknown
So I talk about a customer acquisition story. So, literally maybe back in August a couple months ago, I do a lot of in-person prospecting. I go out there and talk to shippers. I just talk to different people to see if there’s opportunity there.

00:11:47:04 – 00:11:50:19
Unknown
you know, the first location that I went to, back in August,

00:11:50:19 – 00:11:54:00
Unknown
I had kind of always seen flatbeds and things outside of their building,

00:11:54:00 – 00:11:54:15
Unknown
and

00:11:54:15 – 00:11:56:15
Unknown
I just kind of went inside and just introduced myself.

00:11:56:15 – 00:11:59:09
Unknown
I had seen a guy, smoking in the park. I was smoking a cigaret,

00:11:59:09 – 00:12:03:18
Unknown
and I was like, hey, man, you might introduce me to your manager. He. And he was like,

00:12:03:18 – 00:12:11:16
Unknown
he’s in there. I was like, okay, I’m gonna go in there and, see, you know, if he speak to me and then he put his cigaret out and he said, no, you know what?

00:12:11:16 – 00:12:20:01
Unknown
I’m gonna go introduce you. So he walked me inside, and I see him walking to the back, and, I can hear him talking to the manager, and he was like,

00:12:20:01 – 00:12:25:06
Unknown
Nah, I don’t feel like talking. I can hear the manager talking. I don’t feel like talking like that right there. I was like, oh man, you going gonna put me out?

00:12:25:06 – 00:12:35:07
Unknown
he said, wait. He said, he moves flatbed freight. And the guy was like, yeah. He’s like, okay, go see what he has to say. So he comes out and he introduces himself to me. I do this myself to him.

00:12:35:07 – 00:12:43:23
Unknown
And I’m talking about he’s showing me around the entire warehouse. Like once my interaction like that start showing me around the warehouse, we hit it off.

00:12:43:23 – 00:12:50:15
Unknown
I’m thinking, you know, maybe we talk for five, ten minutes. We end up talking for an hour. I was talking for an hour, and I told him,

00:12:50:15 – 00:12:54:06
Unknown
this was in San Bernardino, California, and I was actually headed to Temecula.

00:12:54:06 – 00:12:58:14
Unknown
I told him, I said, hey, I’m, I’m about to head to Temecula. You know, I don’t want to take up all your time, right?

00:12:58:14 – 00:13:19:06
Unknown
It took an hour, but he was like, you know what? Honestly, you don’t even have to go to to make it. This might be the last stop you need to go to. Seriously. And I still end up going to make him go, you know, in a week, like maybe a week later. Amy, he sent, the information to get us all boarded, and we started moving freight with them immediately, like, back to back to back.

00:13:19:06 – 00:13:19:22
Unknown
Boom. Global.

00:13:19:22 – 00:13:23:17
Unknown
So that’s that’s an interesting story. That’s the story for carriers to

00:13:23:17 – 00:13:35:08
Unknown
carriers. You have this power. You do you have this power to go in and talk to shippers and talk to people and to see exactly where the opportunity is, because there’s a lot of opportunity out there, especially if you have your own assets.

00:13:35:08 – 00:13:39:07
Unknown
Yeah. We talked to Justin from truck PD.

00:13:39:07 – 00:13:42:12
Unknown
I think it’s called. And that was one of the things he told us that

00:13:42:12 – 00:13:57:21
Unknown
in person prospecting is is high priority never for want to make actually it never fails. It never fails to know for sure. Awesome. So is there anything else you’d like to, tell to our audience?

00:13:57:23 – 00:14:02:12
Unknown
I would just like to say, I know that we are in a trying time economically. I know

00:14:02:12 – 00:14:13:00
Unknown
things are changing drastically. Is is the industry looks a lot different than it looked a couple of years ago? It really does. A lot of players are falling out of the market. Bankruptcies work. Just everything’s happening right now.

00:14:13:02 – 00:14:38:07
Unknown
And that’s just the, like to leave on a positive note, to say that I feel like everything’s gonna be all right. Like everything’s gonna be all right. I know is turmoil going on? I know, but there’s still a ton of opportunities. Still a lot of room for growth. Especially if you are small. You’re just getting started. This is the perfect time to start, because there’s a lot of, you know, a lot of people that, I should say, a lot of companies that have not put their best foot forward are just are having trouble.

00:14:38:09 – 00:14:41:12
Unknown
And that’s your opportunity to go in there and change the game.

00:14:41:12 – 00:14:59:13
Unknown
You know? So I think 2026 is going to be a great year. I think that everybody should be excited. And I’m definitely excited. So that’s what I would like to just say to everybody that’s watching, it’s going to be great. 2026 I’m willing to bet I’ll put it.

00:14:59:15 – 00:15:05:12
Unknown
Awesome. I love closing on a good note. Thank you so, so much for joining me today. Deshaun.

00:15:05:12 – 00:15:24:20
Unknown
For everyone watching, leave your comment below if you have any questions for Deshaun directly I’ll send them over to him. Don’t forget to subscribe to this. We can trucking to learn more about the industry and never miss a conversation. And don’t forget to sign up for our free newsletter to get the best cities to pick up loads straight to your inbox.

00:15:24:20 – 00:15:26:18
Unknown
Thank you so much for joining me, Dejan.

00:15:26:18 – 00:15:29:05
Unknown
Thank you so much for having me, Amy. I really appreciate it.

00:15:29:05 – 00:15:30:02
Unknown
Dry safe.