In 2010, brothers and James and Jourdan Hansen embarked on an entrepreneurial journey to establish Jimbo & Co Transport in Middlebury, Ind. The two started with an elite crew of favorite drivers who remain independent contractors to this day.
Their initial focus was on transporting cargo trailers for prominent manufacturers, hauling from Indiana, Georgia and Texas. Jimbo & Co swiftly ascended to the top of the cargo trailer niche and expanded to the RV transport industry.
By 2013, Jimbo & Co was the fourth largest RV transport company.
“We definitely learned a lot of things over the past 15 years,” Hansen told RVBusiness. “We’re going to do a driver’s appreciation celebration in July. Right now, we are doing a scavenger hunt for landmarks all across the country.”
Hansen, who serves as the company’s CEO – Jordan is the COO – addressed how his business plan, like using direct delivery from dealerships to RV buyers as a backhaul strategy, took his company to the top by providing steady work for drivers.
“We do things a little different than every transportation company out there,” he said. “We do direct shipping from the dealerships, so it’s almost like an Amazon kind of delivery from the dealership right to the customer’s front door. So, as far as those backhauls, it’s what we do. Drivers want to stay loaded all the time. And the dealerships want to sell and deliver trailers, so that’s definitely a win for them and us.”
Attracting the best drivers is the name of the game in today’s transport world and the Hansen brothers are addressing that fact daily.
“These dealerships will be working with us (for backhauls) all the time,” Hansen said. “As soon as that trailer becomes available, we put it on our load board. And honestly, it’s probably within 30 minutes one of our guys is scheduled on it and on their route to go pick it up.”
His firm is now pushing 200 drivers. For the OEMs he has simplified the process by delivering direct from the factory, or staging RVs in just two northern Indiana locations, one in Middlebury and the other Bristol.
“We bring them directly to our lot, put them on a load board, and guys pick from it and they take off,” he stated frankly. “So these things don’t stay on the lot for much more than about three days. We don’t have to have 60 yards to store these things, we rotate them out.”
Hansen said he is working with many of the major RV OEMs currently. It took time to establish this kind of credibility.
“When we first started, I was 21 and a driver myself,” he explained. “I sold my firm to start this one. My dad said ‘Hey, there’s a market in transporting these cargo trailers.’ It was right out of the recession and other companies had folded. So, we mastered that cargo trailer market, and started branching out into horse trailers, RVs and we grew. I’ve wore all the hats for sure.”
Having been a driver has developed into a real appreciation for the folks he has out on the road.
“From the driver’s standpoint we try and help them managing money and enlighten them on how to do things the right way,” concluded Hansen. “We have fuel discounts, hotel discounts, but our load board’s the huge one. They can go on the internet on their phone, see what we have in every location of the country, and book it in five minutes.”
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