UPTime Truck Parking's Podcast

Transcript

Matt: All right, guys, welcome back to another episode of King's arena. We got Matt and Alex, and we're here with Jack Conlon from uptime truck parking in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jack, how are you today?

Jack: Doing great, Matt. Alex, thanks for the opportunity to be a part of your podcast today.

Matt: Yep.

Alex: Thank you for joining us today.

Matt: Yeah, definitely. So we want to introduce you to people in the area that may not have heard of you yet. So can you tell us a little bit about uptime truck parking and the primary services you guys offer?

Jack: Well, uptime truck parking, the model that we use and the service we offer is safe and secure. Truck parking. Truck parking being the over the road truck driver who's driving a 53 foot trailer with a power unit and looking for a place to park their vehicle, whether it be they're coming home for the weekend or they're operating in the area, or they may just be coming through the Charlotte area.

Matt: All right, perfect.

Alex: What inspired you to start a business focused on truck parking in Charlotte, North Carolina?

Jack: Well, actually, Alex, we didn't start as truck parking. Uptime started as a truck maintenance and repair company, an independent truck maintenance and repair company. Basically, when we got into that business or when I started getting that business, diesel engines were going through various EPA mandates to lower the emissions, and truck dealers were becoming the cardiologist. And there was a need for the independent, very fast service to keep trucks back on the road to do things like oil changes, filter changes, the primary or maintenance items versus operating on an engine. And so as we listened to our customer to become a one stop shop, the request came is we really like the service that we're getting on the repair business, but we'd like to leave our fleet here so you could maintain or service our fleet, the preventative maintenance. And so it started off real small in about a quarter of an acre, and the work got out. Not only were we doing the maintenance, but we had provided the parking and it was safe and it was secured, and it just kept growing from there. To the extent that we're not in the truck maintenance business anymore, we actually have a service provider that's an affiliate that comes onto our facilities now and provides the maintenance to the vehicles at our parking facilities. So it all centered on being that one stop shop for the truck driver.

Matt: Awesome. Well, that's quite a story about growth. And I know just from working with you personally, it's been awesome to watch you guys grow. As far as your background is concerned, what led you to identify truck parking as a crucial need in the logistics and transportation industry?

Jack: Well, my background primarily, my professional career has been in the trucking industry. I have primarily been on the OEM side, where I was very fortunate to work for two of the largest truck manufacturers in North America in the world. And I grew up through manufacturing, and that allowed me to work in many disciplines within a manufacturing or within a large truck manufacturing company. And from my experience in manufacturing and in customer service, in quality assurance, it provided a very good background, not to mention education and finance, to get into this business.

Matt: Okay, well, so I was going to ask you, how did your background prepare you to launch uptime? I mean, was it just kind of like a smooth, seamless process on that end? Because it seems like, oh, no.

Jack: You can have all the background. But on the same token, it was a learning curve for myself as a small business owner who basically was a staff of one versus having a full department supporting you. And so you learn very quick. But the background that I had running larger corporations and larger companies and managing those enabled me to get started heading in the right direction. But it was not easy at all. You can have the product or you can have the service, but putting all the other pieces together, it's quite challenging for a small business owner.

Matt: Right. Well, and that's one thing I wanted to ask you about. Everyone nowadays, they want to open some sort of a small business, but they don't know where to start. They don't know what's ahead of them. So as far as some of these initial challenges that you did face with your business, how did you overcome them and what was that like?

Jack: Well, one of the first things to overcome them is that people, when they go into a small business, and there's all kind of ways to get into a small business, you can buy a franchise, you could start a company like I did, you can partner with somebody. But when everybody gets into the business as a small business owner, the thing we have to remember is we don't know it all. We don't have all the answers. We may think we do, but we need to humble ourselves and take a step back and we need to look at what it is we're trying to do and really what small business owners should do is develop a business plan. It's the old adage that fail to plan is a plan to fail. And there's a lot of resources out there to small business owners and I took advantage of one of them is the score network through the small business association, free mentoring. And I had all the degrees and all the experience. But when I sat down with a small business owner who was retired, had sold his business, but was mentoring to small businesses, I had a lot to learn. I had a lot to learn and he was very instrumental in getting uptime started. It's important when you start a business up, you have the money. That's critical and you're making money. But what my mentor impressed upon me was focus on your customer service and your processes. Provide the customer service second to none and how are you going to provide that customer service and focus on your processes? And that's something I didn't do. I thought I knew it all. I jumped right into it, made some probably not so prudent business decisions that caused to take a step backwards. But we were just blessed and fortunate that focusing on the one stop shop is that we were able to see that there was a need in parking and then the business plan followed from there. So my recommendation on small business owners is take the time and go through your business plan, your finances, your competitors, go through what your marketing is going to be, go through all that information, how much capital do you need? What is your operating expenses? Go through that ahead of time and it's going to take some time. So if people are wanting to get into a small business, if you already have a job, don't give up your day job just yet.

Alex: That's a great response. I appreciate the honesty on that. How does uptime truck parking address the common problems truck drivers face when looking for parking?

Jack: Well, Alex, truck parking has always been there. It's been a challenge. But through the federal mandates on dot regulations as far as how many hours a driver can be on the road and then a required rest, that has really accelerated the need for truck parking, which is a good thing. We want drivers that are on the road to obviously have the appropriate rest because driving trucks delivering goods is still the most efficient way and most cost effective way to transport something from point A to B. And listening to truck drivers, they have to be efficient, just like a manufacturing process has to be efficient. And a big waste is their idle time looking for parking or driving off of an Interstate 510 miles to find parking because they have to be very efficient in getting those goods from A to B, and that means leaving one distributor and getting to an end user, not spending time driving around looking for truck parking. So based upon that need, and it goes back to listening to the customer, what do they have to say? So, uptime has a very strategic approach to where we just don't put up a truck parking facility on any vacant lot anywhere. We strategically look at the locations and we look at how long does it take a truck driver to get off the interstate, for example, or to get from a distribution center, logistics center to one of our sites? Because time is money and we want drivers to get parked. We want them to get home to their families, spend time with their family. We don't want them have to worry about, jeez, my truck is parked on the side of the road. It could get towed. We want them to go home and enjoy their families for the weekend or for the evening, and that's where we come in the service we provide. Awesome.

Matt: Well, yeah, one thing that reminds me of that I want to lead into. You're talking about idle time, and we've seen all these pictures and videos of guys parking off the side of the road. But you and your team have developed an app that helps people with their truck parking. So I'd like to ask you, what inspired this development and implementation for the truck parking? How does it work? Can you tell me a little bit more about this?

Jack: Well, it goes back to, you asked me about my background. It goes back to manufacturing and six sigma and process flow, and it goes back to a one piece flow. And basically the app is number one. It's focused on security. We do have gates. Our yards are fenced, they're well lit. But we want to provide that security because a driver could be carrying thousands of dollars of goods on the back of their vehicle. So it drives off of, we are going to have that security. We're going to have a gate. And then you look at how do you get in? How do you get through that gate? Well, there's all kind of ways. You can have a person at that gate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, letting the person in. You can provide them with a gate code, a four digit code, five digit code that they can use to get into the yard. Even though having a person there or having a gate code, those really aren't the safest ways to do that. Having a person there may be not the most cost effective way to do it. So with the app, what it does, it allows the driver to complete the entire transaction, all from their cell phone and we got there by again, trial and error. We knew what we wanted, we had the pieces. But in working with the company called Truck Bays, they were able, through their programmers, and they actually are the developers of the app. In working with them, they're able to link all the pieces together. First of all, they have a reservation and it's guaranteed. So a driver knows that when they get into the Charlotte area, they know they have a space and it's guaranteed my space is going to be there. So the way they do that on the app is they make a reservation. It's not trial and error. And calling around on the phone to five or six different places, some are open. When we started doing more of the short term parking, what people would tell us is, when we answered the phone, they said, my gosh, he answered the phone. That was half the battle. People could not get somebody to answer the phone. And so we staffed our phones 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We took the calls. But now with the app, it allows the person to take that frustration away from them. They can make their reservation, they can pay for it, and then once they get into Charlotte, when they get in the vicinity of the location, they can actually use the app to get onto the yard and then go to a reservable space that has a space number. So again, it's all based upon the efficiency. Looking at it from the eyes of the driver, taking that yoke, making their burden a lot easier, or more efficient, I should say, not so much easier. And the response of the app has just been tremendous. Just tremendous. We had a young lady the other day, she called and she downloaded the app, and she was having some problems with it. And so one of our administrators got on the phone with her, walked her through it, made her reservation. And her review that she sent us to Google review is she was so appreciative of, first of all, the customer service, taking the opportunity to explain the app, walk them through it. And then the other thing is, they said, next time in their Charlotte, the only place they're going to go is they're going to come back to uptime. They already have the system on their phone, and it's just going to save them so much time. In essence, it's going to save them more money. So the app has really changed. There's a lot of apps out there, but what we like about this one is everything is all tied together from one device, and it's your cell phone.

Matt: Nice, for sure. That's awesome. Sounds like I mean, you've been getting a ton of good feedback from everybody on this, and I appreciate you sharing that particular instance with that lady and how it all worked for her. So I kind of want to ask you a little bit more about the growth of uptime, too. How has uptime truck parking grown or evolved since its inception? You guys have been around for how long exactly?

Jack: We started truck parking six years ago. Okay. And obviously we grew from a quarter of an acre on a side of a field across from our truck parking facility. We started there and we started at one larger location. And again, the need was there because some of it had to do with the growth of Charlotte distribution centers locating here. But also with the laws, the hour change laws, the demand just become greater and greater. So we started on one larger location, and frankly, that didn't work out. So what we have done now is we positioned our facilities. We've taken the larger, one larger location, and we have smaller locations that are anywhere from maybe four to eight acres versus ten to 20 acres. And they're strategically located around Charlotte. So our tagline we have you covered is if you're on the north side of Charlotte, we have a facility there. If you're on the south side of Charlotte, you're down around 45 and 77. We have a facility there. If you're on the west side of town and you're on I 85 or 45, we have a facility on Brookshire Boulevard. And then our newest facility, we opened on the east side of town off of 45, out in the mint Hill Matthews area. So our strategy has been, and the growth has been, is again, looking at the customer, looking at where the traffic is and providing that service at the Four Corners, at the north, south, east and west. So we can cover a need of a customer, some of our competitors, if you were to call them and want a truck parking space, they say we only do truck parking at one location. If it's short term, our customer base or our guest base, we can do short term parking at any of our locations. And again, we want to minimize the time that that driver has to spend on the road and find a location.

Matt: Got you.

Alex: So now, this might be a loaded question here, but what marketing strategies have been most effective in promoting your app and services?

Jack: Well, that's an easy one. We can't say enough about the partnership that we've had with Digital Kings Network. Digital Kings Network wasn't the first web design company that uptime started with. We started with a larger company and we basically spent a lot of time with them. We don't believe we were getting our bang for our buck. And by switching over to digital Kings with know Matt and Alex, you guys have been terrific and you've helped us look at the data, look at where we're positioning ourselves, the things that redesign the website to make it more user friendly, know a used car lot with pieces everywhere, that's been very instrumental. And so my hats off to you guys, because the traffic that we see across our website now is significantly higher than we did the old way. And sometimes change is good, and I know it was a change that wasn't too popular internally. Change is difficult for people, but when you change, people look at some things a different way and they see things that we should be doing. The other thing is that digital King network, you're local, you're close by. If we need to come by and talk to you, it's not. We're calling somebody in Buffalo, New York, you're right there, you're right down the street. And there's a lot of value to that, especially as a small business owner. Instead of us calling all over traveling, you're right here, you're local, and there's huge benefits to that as well. So that's been one of the key marketing strategies. We've been reactive to the customers and their needs, and now we have a way now to become more proactive in going out to the customer base, and that's what we see as our next horizon. Our next growth is to going out to the customers now that the service is there. It's always been there. But going out to them and showing them the process and what it can do for their companies, and that's what I envision uptime doing more so in the next few years.

Matt: Well, John, we really appreciate you saying all that about us, and we love our partnership with you, man. It's been great. And just having even the smallest part to play and watching you go from point A to point B, it's been an absolute pleasure, man. We really appreciate it.

Jack: Yeah, I can say this is that in six years, last year was probably the best year that we've had. And a key component of that is the relationship that we have had with digital kings. To see that growth that we've had, and by getting the word out, having the right pieces in place and a number of other things, it's really contributed. There's other things as well, too, obviously, but the whole digital piece is just so key anymore. And as the old guy in the room sometimes it's hard to teach a dog named tricks. But on the same token, that's how we stay young and that's how we keep growing, is you go to a Walmart and you see how they do self checkout and you just look at other companies and see how they do things. And then you look at, hey, that could apply to us. Why aren't we doing that? And COVID had a lot to do with that too. We used to have staffed yards facilities, I should say 24/7 but when COVID came around, it caused us to rethink our business model and look at our security. And by the use of cellular cameras and things like that, we're able to maintain, if not even provide a better and a more secure product than we did in the past.

Matt: Right? Yeah, I totally agree. I think that's interesting. Again, I thank you so much for saying what you said about us and yeah, man, looking forward to just helping you guys grow in any way that we can. But that being said, have you partnered with any other local businesses or organizations in the area to help expand your services?

Jack: Again, I go back to that one stop shop, Matt, by having affiliates of uptime that we trust. They trust us. We trust them with various maintenance companies. Not many, but we've done things like that. But right now uptime is wholly owned company. We haven't partnered with anybody. We started a new brand last year. It's our pilot brand of on the spot truck parking. And that was designated as the prototype or if we're in manufacturing, it's your pre series, your prototype unit where we were testing various entries and exiting and devices. And again, that's where the truck bays app came about was trial and error up there. But I see us growing by linking with other independents that have the same business philosophies, same core values as uptime so that we can take the uptime message and model partner with other independents, link us together. And in that way we provide a valuable service. In that if I'm in Charlotte, I stay with uptime. But then if I'm in Houston or if I'm in Miami or if I'm traveling through Orlando, there's other affiliates that uptime is a part of that. We're all in the same system, that it's very simple and very efficient way to reserve parking. In other words, they go into a different city and they have to go on a different app or go on a different website or make different calls. No, they just pull out their phone, go to the app, the truck bay app and they can find what other locations are available. And to me, that's the next big step, is to develop that independent network. There's a lot of people trying to build that nationwide network themselves, and there's a need for that. But again, the motivation there, is it to take care of the truck driver, or is it to make the investment in the property? And we look at it as that, yes, it's important to make the investment in the property, but you also have to look at it through the eyes of the customer.

Alex: Yes, absolutely agree. From your perspective, what are some of the biggest challenges facing the trucking and logistics industry today? And what is uptime truck parking doing to solve these challenges?

Jack: It's an awesome question. Awesome question. The drivers, the big thing with drivers, if I'm an owner, an owner operator here, the challenges they have are that the freight rates are so low. I'm not an expert in freight rates, but the rates have gone down so low. And it's like everything else. Yes, inflation may be down or only up a small percentage now, but we look at the last two years, what inflation has been. And so that's probably the biggest challenge that an owner operator faces. Quite frankly, even fleets face that. I know more on the smaller scale, being a local supplier. But the drivers are getting paid less per mile and the cost of their maintenance is going up, the cost of their food is going up, the cost of their housing is going up, those kind of things. So from a driver's perspective, that's their challenge. And from our perspective, the challenge for us is to maintain or lower our cost, in a sense, making our processes more efficient and providing a better level of service. So in other words, our rates are very competitive compared to other people for the value that that operator gets. We provide that safety and that security. They may not get where else. But on the same token is if somebody's vehicle is somewhere else and it gets broken into and they have to get a set of batteries or they got to pay for a broken door or broken window or anything like that, that's going to continue to add that cost, whereas they may pay a few dollars more to stay with us, but on the same token, in the long run, it's going to save them money. And I think that's the alternative. The old adage, you pay for what you get and you can find the cheapest place to park. But on the same token, in the long run, it may be the most expensive place to park when you factor in the total cost of operating your business. So it's challenging out there. It's challenging out there. Fuel rates, inflation for the owner operator. And we're able to implement this app, the technology, the development that goes into something like that, the cost. And yet our rates are relatively the same. There may be a few tweaks here and there, but we're not coming out with a huge price increase or anything like that. Relatively, our rates are staying the same.

Matt: So what does that mean for you guys in the next five years? As far as where do you see yourself? Is there plans for expansion outside of your current areas and lots that you already have? Where do you see uptime?

Jack: Well, obviously we'd like to grow and provide that service. As far as growing outside the locations, that's where, you know, you find other established entities and you grow with them. You expand your network with them so that they may have customers that are on the same system that are staying in Greensboro, North Carolina or Los Angeles, California. And when they come into Charlotte, they're going to stay on the same platform. So that's going to drive incremental business from people that are coming into the area that may not know about us. But I see our growth outside the areas is linking up with other independents. We're not interested in beating our chest and saying we've got 100 or whatever locations. We're more interested in providing a service to the customer at a value that they really see the merits to it and linking ourselves up with other people to provide that same level of service and customer satisfaction. Definitely bigger is not always the best.

Matt: Yeah, I would agree. And like you were saying, I mean, it's all about the handsy shake too, right? So I do have one final question for you. It's kind of two questions, but I'm going to group it into one because you kind of already mentioned this earlier. But what sort of advice would you give to someone that did want to start a business in general or in logistics or your industry of parking, truck parking? And also, could you share a certain lesson learned or a piece of advice that you think is invaluable as being a business?

Jack: Absolutely. Yeah. I think the first thing from a small business owner, I've been very blessed and very fortunate back when I was very young to support our athletic needs of our family. My father started a small business out of our basement at a very early age. And the lessons that I learned at a very early age, working in the basement, so to speak, providing a service, those lessons followed with me even through corporate America. If I'm standing up in front of a dealer body. The same lessons. But some of my views have changed. And I think the first thing is small business owners, they need to humble themselves. They take a step back. They don't know everything. You don't know everything. We may think we know everything, but we don't. And it's okay to say, I don't know. It's okay to say that. And I think one of the lessons learned for me is it's okay to pause. It's okay to take that step back and say, is this the right way to go? Or maybe we should go somewhere else. Because if we don't do that, you spin your wheels and you end up doing things over and over again. We had a system that opened the gate remotely from your phone three years ago, but it wasn't tied into a reservation, it wasn't tied into the financial piece. So as a small business owner, humble yourself, take a step back. It's okay to say I don't know, and pause and find out. I think the second bit of information that really helped me out, yes, my background, but having a group of trusted advisors, having not so much your CPA, but having that financial person who I have, it's almost like you're on board of directors, but you don't pay them. You buy them lunch, but you have that HR professional, that person that you can call and check on that you have other trucking companies, you talk to them and you confide in them and say, I'm looking at truck parking. What would you see? Legal. It's something that I would have never thunked it, but we've developed a relationship from a legal perspective, and now we pay our lawyers, but we don't have to pay them a lot because we don't use them a lot. But on the same token, to go through leases, go through agreements and things like that. So have that trusted network out there. You don't necessarily have to have all those people on your staff as you would in corporate America with corporate attorneys and things like that, but have that trusted, that network that you can rely on, too. And last but not least, have faith. There's so many naysayers out there. There's so many people want to see you not be successful for whatever the reason. There's so many people that are going to be competing with you, but have faith. Those are all distractions to divert you from what your goal is and keep your faith and keep moving forward. And if you don't know the answer, take that step back, because there's just so much out there and the key is that you want to differentiate yourself and it's okay to look around. We always say it's okay to look through the rear view mirror, but when you look out through the windshield and look at all the possibilities and have that faith, you're going to grow even further and be more successful in a sense from a business, but also from a personal standpoint, definitely.

Matt: That's a lot of great information, Jack. And we are just about out of time here. So I wanted to a thank you for your time. This has been um. But I would like to give you the opportunity to tell everyone where can people find you if they need truck parking?

Jack: Very simple. Go to www.uptimetruckandfleet.com and that's the best place you basically three clicks and we can have you reserved and on one of our facility in no time and it's guaranteed. Perfect.

Matt: Awesome. Well guys, for your truck parking needs, go there and get with Jack and we'll live happily ever after.

Jack: All right, thanks guys. Have a great day. Thanks.