Small fleet owner Dean Blalock is in his 20th year of trucking and it is more than luck he continues to make a living in a very competitive profession.
A resident of Jasper, GA, he cites several reasons for his success.
*Don’t haul cheap freight.
*You’ve got to keep working and not sit at home.
*He has his own maintenance shop run by his son, with his daughter handling the books. The shop handles everything from tire changes to most other maintenance.
*You have to be dependable in providing service, including being on time for pick ups and deliveries.
While Dean has done his share of long haul, coast-to-coast trucking he now focuses on having his two trucks run primarily between Georgia and Florida.
On Sunday he will pick up his pre-loaded trailer 53-foot , 2007 Great Dane trailer at a plant in Cornellias, GA filled with frozen chicken. He’ll deliver the load in Plant City, FL. The return trip to Georgia is with produce.
On this particular day in January he had picked up a load of strawberries in Plant City at 10 p.m. and delivered the fruit to Collins Brothers Produce on the Atlanta State Farmers Market the next morning at 7 a.m. He makes three round trips a week, averaging about 3,000 to 3,500 miles per week.
Following the third round trip he typically drops his trailer at the Georgia chicken facility on Friday and picks it up fully loaded on Sunday to start the whole process over again.
“I’d rather deal with the same people all of the time,” Dean relates. “I stick with those companies that pay you. When I arrived at Collins Brothers this morning I was paid soon as I unloaded.”
The Georgian used to haul coast-to-coast, which he described as “okay,” but says the rates were just not what they should be. He makes more on per mile basis with his Georgia-Florida runs.
“Some guys run the East Coast to California for $1800. I nearly make that much doing what I’m doing,” Dean says.
It was about three months earlier that he had make a round trip to the West Coast, but only because the westbound rate was $4500 with the return haul being $5600.
Dean drives at 1996 Peterbilt, powered by a 3406E Cat diesel linked to a 10 speed transmission on a 275-inch wheelbase. The truck has a 63-inch sleeper. He bought the truck in 2003 with 250,000 miles on it. Today, the truck has over 1.1 million miles. His other truck is a 2001 Pete.
Dean is a third generation trucker and also has two brothers in the profession.