Kottke Trucking - 75 Years of Family Tradition

18 Wheels of Justice Proudly Presents…

75 Years of Family Tradition – Kottke Trucking

Click Logo above or call 800-248-2623 Ask for Kyle

Celebrating 75 Years - Kottke Trucking – A Family Tradition

Kottke Trucking was born on a cold night in 1938 in Buffalo Lake, MN.  The Kottke family patriarch, Mr. Elmer Kottke, started hauling milk, feed and fertilizer for the local creamery. 

In 1961 Donald and Duane took over, called it the aptly named Kottke Brothers and started hauling gravel and dry freight to help grow the business. 

Kottke has had its ups and downs over the years, but in 1983 it lost one of its largest customers and this forced them to change the face of the business.  The Kottke Family is a tough lot and they stuck together and triumphed over these challenges.  They traded in the hoppers for reefers and never looked back.  The Kottke family went after, and was awarded a new ICC authority that gave them the ability to pursue customers and freight in all 48 states.  This was a tough period for the company, but family pulls together and finds a way to make things work.

Connie and Duane Kottke have dedicated their lives to the continued success of Kottke Trucking, Inc. Duane started out driving a mail route truck, then moved to hauling grain. He soon found himself in the position of a dispatcher, and at times, both a driver and dispatcher. Connie’s involvement in the company’s success included buying and selling grain, bookkeeping and occasional dispatching. She and Duane also devoted much of their time to raising their three sons; Kurt, Kory and Kyle. We thank them for creating the strong foundation of Kottke Trucking and with pride; we will carry those traditions into the future.

The Kottke Family, not just the relatives, but every driver, owner operator, dispatcher, office worker and mechanic all work together to make this one of the best reefer companies to work for in Minnesota. 

The Staff at 18 Wheels of Justice HQ was fortunate enough to speak with Kyle Kottke, General Manger, to ask him a few more questions about Kottke…

Thanks for joining us, Kyle.  75 years of trucking, that’s a lot of experience and a lot of responsibility.  Why do drivers and owner operators like working for Kottke?

We like to believe we treat them as part of our family.  They have become an extended part of our family and the foundation of our success.  I believe we work as hard as anyone at keeping the quality of life for a driver high.  Most of our drivers are home every 4-6 days.  Some of the routes go 6-10 days.

 

We work hard to make sure that our offerings are in line with the big guys but their quality of work atmosphere is far superior with us.

We like the family owned and operated tradition at Kottke.  As Kottke has grown over the years, how have you kept this tradition alive?

We are deep into the roots of our company.  Kurt, Kory and I are very involved in the day to day operations of the business and are proud of the team we have assembled.  No question, our heritage is very important to us but we don’t rest on yesterday’s success.  We know that we need to be in front of the industry, working with our drivers and customers to continue to be successful going forward.

 

Our tradition is our drivers, not our family.  The most important Christmas Card exchange we have is with many of our retired drivers who have spent their career with us.  I love to hear what they are doing in retirement and glad that we had a small role in their success and their lives.

 

What are your hiring areas?

We are very heavy in the Upper Midwest(MN,WI,IL, and IA) but we hire from the Midwest, South and Southeastern part of the US.  If you go to our website(click here) and find the lanes serviced page, we will hire a candidate from any of our territories.

How much reefer experience do you require?  A large portion of our audience has expressed interest in switching from to reefers…

I require one year of over the road experience.  Reefer experience is optional and we can train on the reefer technologies.

Who should drivers and operators call? ME!  I personally recruit all of my drivers.  I promise no bull!  800-248-2623 ext 2422.

Very nice touch, call one of the owners, Kyle, the hands on approach is the best way to go in our business. 18 Wheels of Justice likes that and likes Kottke.  Thanks for your time today, Kyle, enjoy your Thanksgiving…

Click on Logo above or call 800-248-2623 Ask for Kyle

18 Wheels of Justice Presents - "Landstar Latitude"

Career Decision

                                   18 Wheels of Justice Investigates

 

Owner Operators Check Out

Landstar Latitude

November 8, 2012 - 13:57

Welcome to our multiple part series called “Career Decision”.

 18 Wheels of Justice investigates all the rumors we have heard for years about the money to be made in specialized trucking segments of our industry.  We take an insider’s view of companies who operate in various specialized freight arenas and present our results to help our Owner Operator audience make an informed decision.  It gets a little more complicated with Landstar, a time-honored, agent driven organization who has achieved a great deal of success outside of the typical trucking company design.

The Staff at 18 Wheels of Justice HQ originally had its sights set on the flatbed and heavy haul specialized division of Landstar.  As our investigation continued, our nimble minded staff soon realized that Landstar’s entire approach to dispatch and operations deserves a hard hitting, 18 Wheels of Justice investigative review.

Agents, Agents, Agents… 

We typically do a phone interview as part of our process, I asked my staff to put me in touch with someone in dispatch so we could find some real answers on Landstar’s success and not the typical corporate song and dance.  The staff reported back to me, in shock and disbelief that Landstar HQ in Jacksonville stated that there is no dispatch.  I said, “Who manages their freight? Who manages the planning? Who makes sure the Owner Operators are getting good freight and keep rolling? Who, who, who?”

“AGENTS!” My staff roared from the front office.

Agents, I pondered quietly to myself…  Secret Agents? FBI Agents? Travel Agents? (If you’re under 35, travel agents were used before the internet to purchase airline tickets, cruises and even to make hotel reservations in some cases)

I called Kit, my beautiful but brassy assistant, and explained that we owe it to our audience to get to the bottom of the Landstar approach to trucking, face to face & eyeball to eyeball.

“Get my Travel Agent on the phone and…I mean go online and book two tickets to Jacksonville, F-L-A…”

Owner Operators call 800-435-4010 or visit www.lease2landstar.com

We met with Rocco Davanzo, at Landstar’s Corporate Office, who was kind enough to take the time to speak with us and give us the real scoop on Landstar…

1.) Who are Landstar Agents, what do they do and how is this structure better than a typical Trucking Company?

Landstar doesn’t have a big sales force sitting around at HQ, instead they have independent sales agents located all over North America. The agents go out and get their own customers, they post that freight on Landstar’s electronic “available load boards,” and then it’s up to you to get online and find what you want. The agent networking system allows you, as the owner/operator, to control your schedule. The agents have a vested interest in keeping you loaded, in order to keep moving their customer’s freight.

2.) Landstar is kind of a one stop shop for Owner Operators.  Flatbed, Specialized, Vans, Reefers.  Can an owner operator switch between Landstar divisions?  What if an Owner Operator has his own trailer?

There truly is a career path for owner/operators at Landstar. You can lease to Landstar without platform experience, take advantage of free two-day platform training and take the first step toward a career hauling specialized freight. All you have to do is get yourself down to Landstar’s Orientation Center in St. Augustine - Landstar pays for your food and lodging. I don’t know of any other company that does that. Once you come out of that, you’re able to haul flatbed legal freight and from there you can progress to multi-axle trailers and specialized freight as your experience, skills and desire allow. It’s possible for a van driver with no experience pulling platform to join Landstar’s van fleet and progress to 12-foot-wide specialized platform freight over time. Landstar says they have access to more than 3,000 pieces of platform equipment, but if an owner/operator has their own trailer, great. In fact, once most drivers get their feet wet hauling platform loads for Landstar, they find out how much money they can make and often go purchase their own platform trailer.

3.)  What is the key to Landstar’s success in our Industry?

Landstar’s success appears to come from their unique business model – networking people who like being independent and who want the freedom to run their own businesses, whether it’s from behind a desk or the cab of a truck. 

4.) Why Should an Owner Operator apply at Landstar vs. the thousands of other trucking companies out there?

There’s no forced dispatch – you choose where you want to go, when, what freight to haul. The freedom at Landstar is said to be comparable to the freedom of running with your own authority, but without any of the risk. Their unique agent network, and Load Alerts technology, puts thousands of loads at your fingertips each day. er that ks nt matching your choices is posted on Landstar’s available load board.

With their percentage pay system, you earn a share of the revenue for every load hauled. As freight rates go up, so does your settlement check. Landstar passes along to you 100 percent of all billed fuel surcharges. Plus, there’s discounts on fuel, tires, parts and service through a bulk purchasing program they call LCAPP program, as well as cash rebates on new and used trucks and factory direct pricing on trailers.

5.)  Some of our audience members have more than one truck.  Is Landstar small fleet “Friendly”?

Landstar’s system is optimized for one, maybe two, owner/operators. Small fleets would be much better served by exploring the brokerage side of Landstar’s operation, where Landstar has mutually successful relationships with hundreds of smaller, third-party fleets.

6.) What are the strengths of your specialized flatbed and van divisions?

Landstar is the largest Heavy/Specialized transportation company in the U.S. and ranked 2^nd in the world, according to industry publications. With more than 3,000 pieces of platform equipment, a variety of freight and a safety record that’s second to none, Landstar appears to be a good option for both flatbed and van owner/operators.

18 Wheels of Justice would like to thank Landstar and Mr. Davanzo for spending the afternoon with us discussing Landstar.  Landstar is the “Gold Standard” for owner operators in our industry for a reason.

Owner Operators call 800-435-4010 or visit www.lease2landstar.com

18 Wheels of Justice Copyright 2012