Trucks are lifelines.
We’ve said that repeatedly here at Apex, but at no time is that truer than now. The remnants of Hurricane Harvey’s devastation in South Texas, particularly the Houston, Bloomington, Victoria and Baytown areas, meant a call-for-action from some of our great Apex clients who believe in doing the right thing. They rallied their businesses and communities, collected trucks full of donations, loaded up, and drove to South Texas.
In some cases, the help went to fellow Texans, and in other cases the charity came from total strangers many miles away.
Texans Helping Texans: Codysur Group
For Victor Mendez, Chief Operating Officer at Codysur Group in San Benito, Texas, this was personal. He has family and friends in South Texas, and he wanted to help his fellow Texans. Along with two divisions within his company, Codysur Global and Codysur Trucks, Mendez sprang into action when a fellow employee suggested they all do something for Hurricane Harvey victims. In total, 60 volunteers were involved in the mission for Houston.
They filled a 53-foot truck with canned food, feminine products, 10 pallets of water (40 cases in each pallet), clothes, toothpaste, toothbrushes, diapers, shampoo, conditioner and more. They partnered with a church in Houston that served as the distribution center and transported much needed relief a week ago.
“We wanted to make sure it all got to people immediately,” Victor said. “We didn’t want it to sit in a warehouse. We wanted to help our sister city. Little by little our families, local businesses, local rappers and hip-hop artists, even liquor stores came to us wanting to help with donations. We are all human beings and we must lend a hand to those that need it most. We wanted to show everybody what being an American is all about.”
Neighbors in Louisiana Get in on the Action: A&S Transport LLC and S&M Trucking LLC
Fellow Americans and neighbors in Louisiana also launched into hurricane relief mode. Apex clients A&S Transport LLC in Luling, S&M Trucking LLC in Cut Off, and RPM Trucking in Larose took their eighteen wheelers on the road to South Texas.
“There are a lot of good people working around the clock to help, so keep them all in your prayers,” said Derick Willis of S&M Trucking. Willis and his fellow Louisiana truckers are all great friends as well as Apex clients and they worked together to drive through the many difficult flood zones in South Texas. “Thanks to all my buddies for helping each other navigate our way around the water so we could get to the places that most needed the supplies we were hauling.”
Heroes from Far and Wide: Tar Global Logistics & Murphy Grain
And yet other heroic Apex clients weren’t close to Houston. This was truly a case of strangers helping strangers. Over in Sharpsburg, Georgia, the fine folks at Tar Global Logistics purchased a new trailer that they immediately designated for Houston recovery assistance.
Even farther out is Murphy Grain in Malden, Missouri. Theirs was a story of humble intentions that became grand realities. Roger McDaniel with Murphy Grain said that they started out with the idea of just sending one truck full of donations. But no, that wasn’t enough.
“We ended up getting enough to send three trucks full to Houston,” he said.
Help from Pennsylvania: Hindman Trucking
Which brings us to Buddy Hindman of Hindman Trucking in Butler, Pennsylvania. Talk about a longtime Apex client with a golden heart. Hindman, who has no connection to South Texas, encouraged his community of 30,000 residents to donate diapers, toothbrushes, baby food, dog food, cat food, human food, canned goods, new clothes, paper towels, toilet paper, packing boxes, even can openers. A trailer completely full of supplies arrived in Bloomington, Texas two days later. A second truck, also stuffed, will leave early this week.
Talking by phone with Buddy gives you the full scope of his intentions. His voice was filled with compassion as he felt the emotions of such a humongous effort to help complete strangers.
“God tells us to take care of our fellow man, especially in a situation like this when they have nothing left,” he said. “That’s why I’ve always felt that I need to help people. It overwhelmed me the help that we got. They would come here with car loads of donations. If you lost everything you have right now, what would you need the most? Put yourself in that position and you know what you need to do. I don’t want any credit. My credit comes from doing what God tells me to do.”
Here at Apex our greatest core value is to always do the right thing. It sounds like a cliché, but it’s the truth that drives us every day. As you can see, our amazing clients also believe in doing the right thing. We couldn’t be prouder.
To learn more about factoring with Apex, visit our website or call us at 855-369-2739.