How to Survive the First Year After Starting a Trucking Company

Gumfory Holdings LLC

Trucking company owner Don Gumfory of Gumfory Holdings LLC invited Apex to help celebrate their first year in business after starting his own trucking company. Do you want to start your own trucking company? Let us help!

Are you tired of waiting 30, 60, 90, or more days to get paid? Apex will buy your invoices so you can get paid fast. We offer low competitive rates, recourse and non-recourse factoring options, and no long term contracts. So, if you’re tired of waiting to get paid call Apex today at 855-973-1584 or get started here

Hello everybody and welcome to Burleson, Texas. I am Mario Tarradell with Apex Capital and I am here with Don Gumfory of Gumfory Holdings LLC, Hannah Jones, and Catherine Van Dyke also of Apex Capital. We are celebrating one year of Gumfory Holdings being in business, the one-year anniversary.

Don, how does that feel?

DG: It feels just awesome, man. We just cannot be any happier. We are blessed.

When and why a trucking company? What do you haul?

DG: The main thing we haul is milk. It’s kind of seasonal. Other than the summertime the market changes a little bit, so we have to change a little bit. We’re kind of learning, this being our first year. So, we’ve adapted to finding different kinds of loads throughout the summertime – a little steel, a little cotton. Whatever pays the bills and whatever my wife tells me to do.

When did you get the idea to start a trucking company?

DG: We talked about it early in 2017. I’ve had my commercial license since 2008, worked for a company for a long time, all the good benefits, company credit card, and 401K. We gave that up and decided to start out business. We’re not looking back a bit.

Don is an Apex Startup Program client; he used our services to help him start his trucking company. In doing that he worked with Catherine Van Dyke who works at Apex for the Apex Startup Program.

Catherine, how was it working with Don?

CVD: Where do I begin? It was a true pleasure working with Don from the beginning. Like any startup, he’s very eager to go, ready to put in the hard work. It was a real typical process, nothing crazy happened. He was a real pleasure to work with. Obviously, he’s been taken care of pretty well here because he got to one year.

Don, how do you feel about working with the Apex Startup Program and Catherine?

DG: Oh, it was a pleasure. It was so, so easy. One of the big reasons we chose Apex is we like local companies. We chose them because Fort Worth, that’s very close. Since my wife is a veteran, they waived all their fees. So basically, it cost us very, very little to get started. That was a blessing and we thank God for her service again.

Don, by the way, is also a factoring client of Apex so he works with the Apex factoring side as well which means he works with Hannah Jones who is his Account Executive.

Hannah, what are your thoughts on working with Don?

HJ: It’s honestly been such a pleasure working with Don. A year ago, we started building our relationship and not only have we gotten to know each other on a business level but on a personal level as well. That just goes to show it’s a lot more than just a business transaction, it’s building our relationship. Every time Don calls in, he’s joking around, we’re positive. Even in the tough times, because in the trucking industry there is good and bad, Don remains positive. He has persevered through it. That just shows how ambitious you are, and it’s been a pleasure being a part of it, getting to know you and I look forward to many more celebrations together.

Don, how is it working with Hannah?

DG: It’s great. What I like about it is we can joke on the phone, but then we can also be serious. She has a sense of humor, but when it’s time to get to business I’m not client #123. I can call and say to her, “Hey, what’s up?” It is so personal, it’s awesome. If I have an issue, it’s resolved very quickly.

That’s all part of Apex service, we provide great customer service for our clients and the other thing that I wanted to talk to you about is that Don also has the Apex TCS Fuel Card and I know he has already raved to me about it I’m sure he has to Hannah as well.

What are your thoughts on the Apex TCS Fuel Card?

DG: I don’t know why anybody else would go with a different fuel card. You guys do not pay me to talk about it, but I save so much money. On a bad day, I would save 22 cents a gallon. And I’ve saved as much as 58 cents a gallon. I use my app every day and I can use the Fuel Finder. It doesn’t just necessarily show you the TA and the Petro, it will show you some of the mom-and-pop smaller operations. You might not get that great 50 cents a gallon. But if I’m saving 20, I’m happy with the amount of diesel that we use. It’s so easy to use.

One last question I have for Don is since you’ve been in business for a year now which is wonderful, do you have any kind of advice for anybody else out there who wants to start a trucking company What would you tell them?

DG: Take your time. Don’t get in a rush. Make sure your personal finances are in order. Do not buy just the first truck you find. The payments might seem a little scary, $1,800 to $2,500 a month, that scared me. But paying that little bit extra it is so worth it. You get yourself a newer model truck. It might have a few miles on it, not brand new, whatever you can afford. That’s the advice I have.