Asif Alidina, the son of East African immigrants from Tanzania, truly understands the American dream and the hard work it takes to bring that dream to fruition.
Growing up in Long Island, New York, Alidina began working for McDonald’s at age fourteen, calling it “his office”. From these humble beginnings, he put himself through college, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Stony Brook University in 2007, graduating one year early in order to save a year’s tuition. At 21, before graduating, Alidina had two job offers from finance companies wanting to use his talent. Soon, he found himself on the West coast working in Investment Banking, but due to the Great Recession and the troubled financial markets, Alidina found himself without a job and literally homeless, living in his car and showering at a local gym where he worked out. It was during this difficult time, Alidina had the inspiration and began dreaming of starting his own freight transportation company. “I’ve always been self supportive and at the age of twenty five, I made the decision to go back east, where I gained acceptance to Penn State University’s MBA program. At the same time, I established EXAM Transport & Co., a Tennessee-based biopharma logistics & trucking firm. When I started my business I had exactly $1.12 in my bank account.”
In the two years and three months his company has been in business, he has generated approximately 1.5 million dollars in revenue and is slated to double that in 2015 — with help from Expediter Services. “I’m always looking for new ways to grow my business . By chance, I ran into someone who was an Expediter and we began talking about the trucking business and that’s how I found out about Expediter Services. I started doing research about the industry and went to ES’s website. Soon, I was in touch with Josh Swindoll at Expediter Truck Sales and purchased a slightly used 2012 Cascadia. I also talked with Jeff Tacker and utilized Expediter Equipment Finance for financing. I signed on with one of the carriers supported by ES’s Owner Operator Program and completed orientation just as the holiday season was kicking into high gear. My driving team and I dove in and learned a lot in a short amount of time. We made it through the crunch and we’ve started the year off well. Without a doubt having gone through such an intense holiday season helped me learn a lot and made me an even better Expediter. I feel like I can handle just about anything!”
As with every other aspect of his life, Alidina isn’t resting on his laurels. “I have an aggressive 5-year growth strategy in place for the years 2015-2020. I’ve placed my Masters program at Penn State on hold in order to focus and build EXAM Transport & Co., and I will definitely continue to utilize the programs and services offered by Expediter Services to reach this goal.”
Alidina has accomplished quite a lot at the age of twenty-eight. “I’ve really been blessed. I married the girl of my dreams. We have an amazing two year old son and another baby on the way! America truly is a country that will let you pursue your dreams if you work hard enough.” Check out EXAM Transport & Co.’s Company Profile at Bloomberg.com.
Husband and wife team Padriaca and Cindy Chau Prude are no strangers to the pages of Spotlight news. The last time we visited with this driving duo was in August of 2013. They were just starting their careers as expediters and deciding that the best path for them was to begin as contractors in order to learn the expediting business. A lot has certainly changed since then! Read their story from 2013
“Cindy and I drove as contractors for about seven months, knowing that we wanted to be independent, have our own business and own our own truck,” said Padriaca. “Once we learned the ropes, we took the plunge and purchased the same refrigerated 2008 Kenworth T660 that we drove as contractors while partnering with Expediter Services. Taking the Path to Ownership was actually an easy step just knowing that Expediter Services support was behind us. We rely on their Owner Operator program to handle the paperwork and minutia that takes time away from driving and making money. On top of that, our track record with Expediter Services helped us when it came time to finance our truck through Expediter Equipment Finance.”
Not content to rest on their laurels as owner operators, the Prudes made plans to expand their business. “We began to see the benefits of truck ownership right away. It really whetted our appetites to expand our business and we knew that purchasing another truck was in our future. In November of this year, Cindy and I purchased a 2012 Cascadia dry box from Expediter Services fleet with about 300,000 well-cared-for miles — and we once again utilized Expediter Equipment Finance for our financing, they just make purchasing a truck so easy. At this point I think I’m going to make Josh Swindoll over at Expediter Truck Sales my permanent go-to guy when it comes to buying trucks,” chuckled Padriaca.
The Prude’s plans as fleet owners involve making money, and providing opportunities for others. “As fleet owners, we want to provide opportunities for others, very much like Expediter Services gave us the opportunity to get into expediting. As a Marine Corps Reservist and combat veteran, I feel its important to reach out to hire military veterans, and we already have a team of drivers in place who are former/retired military. They picked up their first load on December 18th, exactly one year from the day that Cindy and I purchased our first truck.”
The future of their fleet is already in place. “I think its important to have a good mix of refrigerated and dry box units. In 2015, we plan on adding two additional trucks and one truck every quarter in 2016 until we reach twelve trucks. I see lots of opportunity out there for us as fleet owners.”
In June of 2013, Spotlight reported how Patrick Lee and Eric Hyfield, two young men from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, turned to Expediting to escape the effects of the “Great Recession” and the limited economic opportunities in their area. Today, they are successful Fleet Owners who know a thing or two about utilizing Expediter Services’ Circle of Success and taking the Path to Ownership. Click here to read story from June of 2013.
Their journey to Fleet Ownership began in November, 2012, entering the Circle of Success as new Contract Drivers. By June of 2013, they bought their own truck through Expediter Equipment Finance, becoming Owner Operators. And just this month, they became new Fleet Owners with the purchase of a refrigerated 2009 Freightliner Cascadia. “Ever since we began in Expediting, Eric and I dreamed of being Fleet owners,” said Lee. “When we got into the business as Contractors with Expediter Services, we jumped into it with both feet; staying out on the road for long stretches of time, taking lots of loads and learning as much as we could. This helped prepare us for the next step of actually buying our own truck. Now, we’ve learned even more and recently purchased a refrigerated truck — our first step to building a fleet.”
It’s interesting to note that Patrick and Eric’s plans to purchase a new truck were already laid as far back as April — then they visited the EGG the weekend of April 4th & 5th, and things changed! “It’s kind of funny, Eric and I had already found a truck to buy and we were getting ready to talk to Expediter Equipment Finance about it. At about that same time, we learned about the EGG at ES’s offices in Southaven, Mississippi. We went their with the sole purpose to just meet the folks at Expediter Services and get to know other Expediters. But when we got there, we saw this Cascadia for sale, and it was such a better truck than the one we had already picked out. We spoke with Steve Kochensparger who was at the EGG and started the ball rolling to purchase the truck. The EGG was so much better than we expected. It was great meeting so many Expediters and talking to them about their experiences as Contractors, Owner Operator and Fleet Owners. I would recommend anyone interested in this business to visit the EGG.”
The future is looking bright for the new Fleet Owners. “Today, we just locked down a team to drive our new truck. Now we can concentrate on working hard so we can expand our fleet in the near future,” said Lee.
Like many folks affected by what has become known as the “Great Recession”, long time friends Patrick Lee and Eric Hyfield were looking for career opportunities. After quite a bit of research online, they realized that Expediting may just give them the leg up they needed to turn their careers and their lives around.
“The state of the economy in general had really made it tough for me to make a living here in Baton Rouge,” said Patrick Lee. “I wanted to find something that could become a career, and not just short term employment. Eric was kind of in the same boat, we both were looking for the right opportunity. I started doing some research online and began looking into Expediting. The more I learned, the more it appealed to me. I really liked that idea that driving an Expediting truck didn’t involve hauling a trailer.”
Their online research eventually lead to Expediter Services’ website. “When Eric found Expediter Services online, I contacted them to see what we would need to do to become Expediters. Their insight into the industry was really helpful. Even at this early stage, Eric and I had it in our minds that we wanted to be Owner Operators — but first, we knew we had to learn the business from the ground up. We got our CDL’s and signed on with Expediter Services as Contract Drivers,” said Patrick.
Indeed, Patrick and Eric’s Expediting education had begun in earnest. “With FedEx as our carrier, we began making runs all across the country. We’ve really learned a lot over the past eight months, and Expediter Services’ support has been extremely helpful all along the way, so much so, that we decided we were ready to take the path to truck ownership,” said Patrick. “We contacted Josh Swindoll at Expediter Truck Sales and soon began the process of buying a truck of our own: a 2008 Kenworth T660! The process went smoothly, we made our downpayment and Expediter Equipment Finance helped us with financing. It couldn’t have gone any smoother.”
Their journey into Expediting and truck ownership took less than a year, but they’ve set some long term goals going forward. “In the near term, we’re going to run our new truck and focus on earning money. We’ve already made a run into Canada, and things are going really well. In the future, we’re thinking of adding another truck or two. There really is no telling how far we can go,” said Patrick.
