Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

From an idea comes a successful business venture

Sometimes, just sometimes, dreams do come true.

Of course, they tend to need some help, dedication, hard work and sacrifice in order to come true, but they do, occasionally, come true.

Such is the case of M.C. Young, Inc.

This business began about six years ago from a concept of helping independent truck drivers find loads to keep them on the road. In a fluke of timing, Gurdon resident Mary Young, the business owner, came up with the idea at about the same time loads were being posted on the Internet.

The home-based business has done nothing but grow in its six-year existence. It went from making $12,000 in its first year to billing more than $4 million by the end of 2004.

"I decided I wanted to do something at home," Young said. "I had a small child and didn't have a job. A friend bought a 40-foot flatbed with a hotshot and wanted me to find out about back hauls.

"I knew nothing about the trucking industry, but came up with the idea of putting small trucking companies together. I was the first in the nation to do this."

Young came up with a plan to get loads for independent truckers and basically formed a cooperative. A room in her house became the dispatch office where she tracked down loads for independent owner/operators.

Young soon discovered the existence of the load board on the Internet. This web site advertises available loads nationwide. "We advertised the trucks and the brokers advertised loads," she said, "and matched them up within a defined radius. The whole thing was from divine intervention."

In the first year, there were many nights when dinner was Ramen noodles. Additionally, there were many days during the company's inaugural year when Young worked 20 hour days, seven days a week as a one-person show.

Now, she said, there are three major web sites advertising loads  DAT, which is considered cost prohibitive, Internet Truck Stop, the primary board used, and Get Loaded, the one used exclusively by M.C. Young, Inc. now. DAT, she said, predated the other two.

Initially, Young was paid on a per load basis, taking a $10 fee for the loads negotiated no matter how much the driver made or the load paid. She had a fax machine and phone line when the business started. However, this was quickly outgrown and now Young has had to hire two people, whom she trained, and works three computers, with several phone lines ringing almost constantly.

Her husband, David Wagnon, built an office onto the house, installed the phone lines, built the desks and set up the computer system for the business.

The trio keeps track of who's driving what truck, where they are and where they're supposed to go, along with when they're supposed to arrive. The drivers are "like family" she said, and all are known on a first-name basis. "We care about each and every driver. We handle them like they're family to us."

Young's system works as she has few drivers leave her company. Those who do usually try to come back at some point. Her business basically grew by word of mouth, as drivers talked to each other about where they could get loads. Young's name got mentioned, leading to a phone call from a trucker needing a load. This became a profitable cycle for M.C. Young, Inc.

During the holiday season, Young's company works hand-in-hand with Wal-Mart and the United States Postal Service. She dispatches trucks in her stable for the USPS to help handle the increased volume of mail.

However, the business has outgrown its current location and is moving to Searcy. This came about when Young found Marty DeFore a load. He was in Texas at the time, and told someone who drove for Natural State Carriers (NSC) about her help. This led to drivers from NSC calling for loads and a call from NSC's owner, Jim Thompson, who asked who Young was as she was literally "running his company".

NSC drivers ran extra loads for Wal-Mart during the holiday season, Young said, with her acting as dispatcher. The situation worked out so Thompson has semi-retired and turned the company over to Young. But, NSC is based in Searcy, which is why M.C. Young, Inc. is moving.

While dispatching for 67 drivers and 43 different companies, Young ventured further in the field of the trucking industry. She found a way to buy trucks and put drivers in them, allowing the drivers to buy the trucks from her in two years. "It's economical for the trucker and everybody makes money," she said.

Young built NSC from six to 27 trucks and manages five other trucking companies, along with her own "rent to own" trucking business. The five companies she manages are Maple Springs, Strauser Trucking, Straight Line, S&P and Jack Wood and Associates. M.C. Young, Inc. does the dispatching and billing for all these companies, making 10 cents per loaded mile.

The way the business is set up, she said, all the drivers have to do is drive. "We do all the billing, find loads, do the paperwork and do comchecks." Comchecks are like money orders for truckers.

"When a driver signs on with us, all they do is drive, the rest is done for them," Young said.

M.C. Young, Inc. currently has a payroll of $85,000 per week for the truckers, with virtually no turnover. The drivers are diverse, she said, coming from all over the country.

"Service failure is not in our vocabulary," she said. "We have a 99.7 percent delivery rate and are working to help others in the industry build their companies.

"The average person doesn't realize truckers are the backbone and heartbeat of this country. Without them the U.S. would cease to exist. If the trucking industry shut down for 24 hours," she said, "it would take the nation's economy 10 years to rebound. Everything people touch in their daily lives pass through the hands of truckers."