I had the opportunity to shadow Sam Hardy to see what it’s like through his lens at Jetco. He made it very clear from the start that no day is the same in trucking. Sam has been our open deck director for the past four years.
Prior to working at Jetco, Sam interned with TQL where he worked as their account executive for two years in South Carolina. He later relocated to Ari Logistics’ Houston location for two years, where he worked on assets and brokerage, before joining the Jetco family in 2019.
Sam is on track to become a veteran in the trucking industry since his whole career has been in it; he has been in the business since graduating college in 2016. His day starts at 6 a.m., when he responds to emails and handles business fresh upon opening his eyes. I was lucky to catch him on Good Friday at 8 a.m. once he got to the office, which speaks to his reliability and commitment to servicing our clients and professional drivers, even on a government holiday.
Once he arrives at the office, Sam finishes catching up on emails from the previous day. There are also loads that move at night that he oversees, so he never really stops working. He will update clients and check in with our drivers to see where they’re at while delivering their loads.
Many people don’t know that professional drivers are responsible for securing their loads and trailers that they haul. Before departing a facility, our drivers check in with Sam and send him a few pictures from different angles for him to verify that the loads are secure and safe to transport down the road. This way, there are multiple eyes on each job to help ensure that they’re safe to be on the road.
For the remainder of the day, Sam is focused on future decisions. Sam said, “Once I’ve contributed to the customer service side, I focus on our afternoon drop-off times and make sure we’re ahead of schedule.” He told me that he’s looking at least two to three days in advance by the middle of the day to ensure we’re not overbooking.
His additional responsibilities involve managing expectations, which includes making sure dispatchers are on track, making sure we hit our daily goals and guaranteeing that our clients receive great customer service across the board: “We have to make sure our customer is satisfied with our service. There are thousands of other companies dying for the work if they had it.”
When asked what the most stressful part of his job was, Sam said, “The uncertainty – trucks go down every day, whether it be a flat tire or a blown hose, and we have to inform the customers of what exactly is going on and how we’re going to move forward.”
Sam tells me about a time where he provided outstanding customer service despite adversity to satisfy a client and maintain great relations with Jetco: “We had a new customer with two assets and a brokerage truck. The truck being used for brokerage was hauling a very weak trailer that was not in the best of conditions. The piece we were putting on it was worth close to $1 million. We decided not to let the load be hauled down the road with uncertainty on the brokerage truck and trailer.”
Sam took the time to travel down to the port and wait with the customer himself for 10 hours to finally get the load that day: “We ultimately did the right thing and avoided a huge claim and maintained our relationship with the customer who we still work with today,” Sam said.
Sam is a man who values consistency and the genuine relationships he shares with his coworkers. Drivers, dispatchers and team members respect the dependability he shows on a day-to-day basis. We cannot thank Sam enough for the hard work he puts into keeping Jetco a reliable, safe provider. We and our clients gain peace of mind knowing that our open deck director goes the extra mile to keep everyone safe on the road.