A Message from Our CEO, Brent Nussbaum
In case you missed it — tune into this week’s Dashboard Radio, where Brent talks about why we’re growing right now and shares some exciting news on new dedicated business we’ve recently been awarded. (Interview starts at 3:10)
Two Dedicated Wins Fueling Our Momentum
ULINE — $3.1M annual revenue (before FSC). Dedicated roundtrips from PA to CT, starting 7/13 with six drivers and ramping to 11 by September. This expands an already strong relationship with a company that shares our values and culture — a true win-win as we grow alongside one of the largest, most respected distribution brands in North America.
Rivian — $3.9M annual revenue (before FSC). Ramping to 20–25 drivers by September, running from Normal, IL to GA, SC, TN, MI, KY, and MS. We’re proud to keep capturing Rivian’s long-term growth and expanding our footprint with them.
These wins happened because of YOUR hard work and owner mindset. Thank you for making them possible.
Equipment Update
We’re positioning our fleet to seize these opportunities and more — 14 used trucks, 143 new van trailers, 36 used van trailers, and 23 new open deck trailers, all arriving through the rest of the year, with more purchases under consideration.
That’s a lot of new iron to get road-ready. So we’ve made the call to pause our goal of growing outside maintenance revenue to $100K in 2026, and instead spend the rest of the year getting our people and processes right — with the goal of picking that back up in 2027.
A huge thank-you to our shop team for getting this equipment received and prepped — especially Trevor’s unassigned crew and Ben’s trailer team. One year’s worth of equipment work, done in three months. Unprecedented.
Full Q&A: Why We’re Growing Now
Last week, Brent sent a company-wide message about our growth and where we’re headed. Here’s the full conversation where he answers the questions that message raised.
Q: Last week you sent a message out to the whole company about our growth and where we’re going. Can you give us some context for why this letter was sent out, what that means, and what you mean when you say growth?
That does bear some explanation. As most of you are aware, we’ve just come off probably the flattest three years in our history — we just have not had any growth at all. It hasn’t even made sense to grow with the kind of pricing that’s been in the marketplace. I call it the “sea of red” around here — when I look out in the parking lot and see all those trucks parked, we’ve had up to ten percent of our fleet parked in the last couple of years because it just hasn’t made sense to put more trucks on the road with the pricing our shippers have been paying.
Fast forward to this year: Federal Motor Carrier Administrator Derek Barrs has gone to work. He’s taken a lot of these “chameleon carriers” off the road and shut down illicit CDL schools. He’s done a lot to clean up our roads, and we’re all very thankful for that. I’ve heard comments from a few drivers who’ve said it’s been nice — now they can get to a truck stop as late as eight o’clock at night and still find a parking spot.
So it’s cleaned up the number of carriers on the road, and in the meantime it’s allowed market pricing to adjust upward. Since about the end of February, our business has just gone bonkers. Chris Aranda told me this week — he said, “Brent, we are oversold.” I love hearing that, because when you’re oversold, it means you’ve got more freight than you can haul, and you can go back to shippers and say, “I need to get the rates up.” When the market’s flat and depressed, it’s impossible for us to adjust wages, pay for new equipment, or cover the cost of things like our insurance rates.
This year we started experiencing that shift the first of March. It takes me back a little to COVID — in 2020 everything dropped off a cliff, and then by the first part of June we started feeling some life again. We’ve been praying and asking God what it looks like to best steward the resources we have. We’ve got this sea of red, a lot of trucks parked — and if the pricing’s right and we can find drivers and get the resources in place, it makes a lot of sense to start putting that equipment back to work.
(You’re telling me we’re going to part the Red Sea? We’re parting the Red Sea — no doubt about it.)
Q: How much can we expect to grow? Is this normal growth — thirty drivers a year, or what can we expect?
We have to take it year to year — we don’t know what the market’s going to do. Right now the market is really, really hot, and as we look at all the data in front of us, it looks like this market’s got legs to take it beyond a year. We think it could run two or three years before it cools off.
Let’s remember, this market is not economic-driven — it’s supply-driven. It’s the same amount of freight out there, just a lot fewer drivers, so shippers are having to pay more because there aren’t enough drivers to haul it. I had a call this noon with Buford Hedden, head of logistics for Michelin North America. He told me, “Brent, I wish Nussbaum could haul out of every one of our plants.” He said they’re struggling to find carriers who’ll service them well, and that our people — our drivers, our customer service folks, everybody in operations — are doing an awesome job. He said the last three months have been rough for him just trying to keep up.
So this isn’t just us looking at three months of runway and deciding to go for it. We look at a lot of data. We use an organization called FreightWaves — probably the premier organization assessing the marketplace — and they’ve also projected this will be here for quite a while.
(So there’ll be more trucks on the road long-term, not just rates popping up?)
Right — we haven’t even hit the economic part of things yet. If the economy were to turn around and this became demand-driven on top of the supply shortage, that would be a whole different ball game. It’s a good problem to have, and we’re excited.
Our sales department has worked hard to go back and get rate increases from all of our shippers, and that’s allowed us to do things like instituting a new profit-sharing program — you’ll see the first payout at the end of July — and a brand-new pay increase for all of our drivers. Many of you might say, “Well, it’s about time.” We agree. Every one of you has felt the challenges of inflation, and it’s time to get pay up.
Q: You mentioned you had news hot off the press. Is that something you can share?
Maybe. It’s exciting — we’ve got opportunities to grow in a number of areas. Our open deck division is one of them: our goal within the next year is to get that division up to at least fifty trucks. Right now we’re at twenty-nine or thirty.
We’ve also got opportunities on the dedicated side. Rivian, right here in Normal, just launched a new mid-sized vehicle, the R2, and their orders came out really hot. As they ramp up, they’ve given us a bunch of new dedicated business in this area, so we’re adding quite a few drivers locally to support that.
And hot off the press — just an hour ago — Uline gave us a dedicated operation out of Pennsylvania going to Connecticut. That starts the middle of July with six drivers, ramping up to eleven by mid-September. It’s everyday movements from their warehouse in Pennsylvania to their new warehouse in Connecticut.
So yes, we are going to grow. We’re busy sourcing new equipment — trucks, trailers, everything that goes along with it — and looking at how we ramp up operations for this influx of business. We’re adding another recruiter, because more business means more people needs across the board. There’s a lot of excitement here right now, and everybody has stepped up asking, “What do you need me to do?”
We want to be clear: this is not reckless growth. We care about our culture. We care about our people. We want that to remain first and foremost in everything we do. This has been thought out — a lot of prayer, a lot of insight. Our executive group has spent a lot of time going back over this, asking, “What have we missed?” We want this to go smoothly, and we want our customers to look at us and say, “Wow, Nussbaum ramped up and took on new business, and it’s going really well.”
To put a number on it — a typical year of growth for us is never more than three to five percent. This year is going to be at least ten percent.
Q: There are going to be growing pains, and I think you said in the letter — be patient, and we’ll figure it out together with grace for each other.
We will be juggling a number of things. But we appreciate your patience and your help, because this doesn’t just concern us — it concerns you. You’ll be part of it.
One thing we always look at is positive growth in our ESOP stock value. It was very flat last year, and what we want to do is keep that value climbing so it benefits everybody. Taking equipment that’s been sitting on the sideline, adding new equipment we’re purchasing, and putting it into service at a much higher utilization rate should drive our profits — that’s what all our projections show — and that will drive our stock price, which hopefully next year will be a really nice surprise for everyone.
Q: And the reach of what you’re doing — more trucks on the road, more people seeing these messages, more people talking to amazing Nussbaum drivers — that’s a positive effect for the whole industry.
That’s a really good point. It does broaden our reach to positively impact everyone we come in contact with — internally and with our external customers who see us out on the road every day. We have an opportunity to impact them in a very positive way.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share?
We’d ask for your patience. And for those willing to pray alongside us — please pray that God would guide and direct us through this influx of new business, new equipment, and putting it all together. We’ll also need more drivers, so if you know anyone, please refer them to our recruiting department. They’d love to talk to them.
Have questions of your own about our growth? Reach out to marketing@nussbaum.com or stop by Brent’s office — his door is always open.
