Team Drive-Away makes it easy for dealers to get trucks delivered

Jim Marmon remembers his summer job in college; it became the springboard for the company he owns and operates today, Team Drive-Away.

His Shawnee company, which serves Class 8 used truck dealers and freight haulers, matches drivers to haul truck cabs from the seller to the end user in the United States and Canada.

“I came home in the summers and answered the phones for a small family trucking business,” Marmon said. “I stayed for three years and helped build it. …. Once I graduated, he didn’t offer me what I wanted, so three months later I started my own company.

“It taught me a lesson that if you hire good people and take care of them, they will stay with you and not leave.”

Marmon spent six months developing a business plan for the company.

Q: As a kid just out of college, how did you finance your own business venture?

“I took it to area banks and they said, ‘That’s nice, but you don’t have any collateral,’” Marmon said. “So I applied for every credit card I could and maxed them out to fund the business.”

Marmon said he was able to get about $26,000 in cash at about 20 percent interest.

“It’s fun to talk about it now, but it was stressful at the time,” he said. “I knew I would pay them back before I took a dime out of the business.”

It took about eight months to repay the credit cards; Marmon put in additional efforts, too.

“I worked the business during the day and then I worked 4 to midnight elsewhere to make ends meet,” Marmon said. “If you really want something, you have to do what it takes.”

Marmon started in the industry in 1995 with a partner. After 12 years together, Marmon sold his interest to the partner and started Team Drive-Away. They divided customers and had a one-year non-compete agreement. After that, Marmon was able to reconnect with some prior customers.

“We’ve had a double-digit growth rate since we began,” Marmon said. “Today, we’re four times bigger than the old company. … In business, you’re either growing or dying.”

Q: How does your business model work?

Team Drive-Away hires drivers who are independent contractors.

“We actually use one of the customer’s own trucks to haul the trucks we are delivering,” Marmon said. “We don’t own any trucks ourselves. We supply the drivers to haul them. … We’re mainly a cash flow business without a lot of capital investment.”

Team Drive-Away works with more than 300 independent drivers who call into the company’s dispatch, choosing the jobs they will take. Using proprietary transportation management software, the company makes the matches.

The company has about a 50 percent turnover rate, which Marmon said is low by industry standards that run around 90 percent or higher. Drivers usually haul their own car along with the truck cabs they are delivering so they can drive home from the destination and keep costs down.

“That’s the most efficient and cost-effective way,” he said.

Q: How do work payroll?

Drivers are paid a set price plus a fuel surcharge.

“We were the first company to take that fuel surcharge and pass it along to our drivers,” Marmon said.

Team Drive-Away counts on its drivers to do the best possible for its customers.

The drivers “have to choose the most efficient route and they can then keep what’s left over,” Marmon said. “They keep about 65 percent of what they are paid.”

Several companies provide transfer services for trucks. Marmon said Team Drive-Away faces five large competitors in the metro area alone.

Q: How do you counter your competition?

“Our point of differentiation is the way we treat our drivers,” Marmon said. “Our drivers are as important as our customers. We treat them with respect … and we pay them the next day.”

Customers are important to Marmon, too.

“We have direct relations with our customers,” he said. “We tell our sales people don’t start by selling them anything but by building relationships.”

Q: What is the greatest challenge you confront with Team Drive-Away?

“People,” Marmon said. “With independent drivers you have no control over them. They don’t have to work. It’s a challenge when you build those relationships, but you can overcome them.”

Today, Marmon’s sister is part of Team Drive-Away’s 30-employee team. Things are often hectic, but Marmon likes it that way.

“I never look at my watch and say, ‘Is it 5 o’clock yet?’ We go 100 miles an hour all day long.”

This story was originally published February 17, 2015 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Team Drive-Away makes it easy for dealers to get trucks delivered."