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When Tony Horzen launched his first successful business venture he was still in elementary school. Perhaps it should be no surprise that in celebrating only his second anniversary of High Street Logistics, the company is arranging 2,000 loads a year.

Horzen sees the biggest challenge facing produce truckers is "surviving the tough markets during the winter months."

You can bet one of the first things the president of the San Luis Obispo, CA-based truck brokerage learned as a kid, was being reliable and how to communicate well with others.  He has stayed true to his philosophy for more than two decades and sees those traits being common among the successful produce truckers with whom he works.

High Street Logistics has a good mixture of everyone from single truck owner operators to large fleets and see advantages to being associated with both.  However, he adds, “Owner operators seem to work best for us, because they seem to have a personal interest in the freight they are hauling.”

Horzen stresses the importance of having a good working relationship with good, reliable carriers and part of that is having good communications.  “The carriers who are real reliable and communicate well are the guys we make notes on their carrier profile in our software system.  Those are the guys we always go to first,” he states.

The advantage of working with large fleets, he notes, is they have so many trucks in so many different places, which allows more flexibility in picking up and delivering loads.

Horzen sees the biggest challenge facing produce truckers is “surviving the tough markets during the winter months.”  His observation has been owner operators who are doing better financially take advantage of the high produce rates during the summer when loads may be paying double or more the rate of winter months.  Even the good paying loads are not as attractive as they used to be with the cost of diesel fuel.

“Produce is so seasonal.  We see the high rates in the summer months, which is what it should be, as opposed to some new carriers who think they can offer a lower price and gain some customers.  I think they are making a big mistake because the freight rates go down pretty low in the winter months and carriers should really take advantage of the market conditions,” he says.

High Street Logistics has a good mixture of everyone from single truck owner operators to large fleets and see advantages to being associated with both.

“We don’t try to arm wrestle carriers into doing something that is not profitable for them, because we understand the relationship has got to be good for everybody.  If they aren’t in business tomorrow we’re not going to be able to use their services,” Horzen says.

He adds the company takes what is quoted by the carrier and passes it on to the customer.   He stresses the need for carriers to make the necessary adjustments in their operation to compensate for the fuel costs.  High Street tries to stay out of getting involved with fuel surcharges.  Not only does this allow the carriers to determine fuel surcharges for their own particular operations, but also when it is included as part of the rate, it simplifies the rate for the brokerage’s customers.

As for driver compensation, Horzen says they pay within 15 days of receiving the original paperwork for the haul.  A “quick pay” also is available where the driver can fax in his bill of lading, which has been signed by the receiver.  A “comcheck” from High Street can be provided the driver the same day the haul is completed.

Horzen’s got into the egg  business when he was only nine years old.  Nine years later he sold his operation to another egg ranch.

He grew up with his cousins who were involved in growing produce, plus had a trucking company. “I grew up riding in and working on trucks,” he recalls.  “Through them I gained a lot of experience in trucking.”  The family still runs about 50 trucks.

Horzen then got into the packaged ice business, sourcing the product from both the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles.  His ice business required local distribution and running trucks to the Bay Area and L.A. for the pick-ups.  This resulted in looking for and acquiring loads to deliver to the two larger cities so ice could be hauled on the return trip.  “This was really the start of our trucking operation,” he relates.

His local customers in the San Luis Obispo area were growing and started shipping out of state.  “We didn’t have a need to run our trucks out of state, so we created High Street Logistics,” Horzen says.

He points out heavy equipment and frozen foods account for the majority of their loads, with fresh fruits and vegetables making up about 30 percent of the business.  However, High Street is looking to increase its business with produce.

“It (produce) is very competitive.  There are lots of brokers, but it is not easy in any business to grow, etc.  But we're young and there is a big market out there, and we want a piece of it,” Horzen says.  He isn’t kidding when referring to the six people at High Street being young.  At age 30, Horzen is the oldest member of the group.

But Horzen seems to have a good handle on the trucking business, just like he did 21 years ago when he had that egg ranch.  And he will be the first to say that being reliable and having good communication skills go a  long way in being successful.

February Produce Movement
Compared to a year ago, there are a lot more loading opportunities for hauling storage onions out of the Northwest.  Washington state expects to ship its second largest amount of potatoes on record this season.  Average shipments of potatoes continue from Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada.n