Playbook: Growth & Scaling

The decision that changed Debon Sims’s life got made in a prison cell, over a pamphlet. That is where this story starts, and it is worth sitting with, because it frames everything that comes after. In 2015, Sims got into what he calls the only kind of trouble he had ever been in, his first […]

The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program is an option for small carriers looking to raise capital and scale effectively.

There is a version of trucking that lives on YouTube. Somebody stands next to a box truck and explains how they made six figures in their first year, and the comments fill up with people saying they are about to quit their jobs and do the same thing. Some of them actually do it. Victor […]

The Gap Between the Headline and the Freight The White House published a press release on April 22, 2026, titled “Trump Effect: American Manufacturing Is Roaring Back as Factory Activity Hits Four-Year High.” The ISM Manufacturing PMI did reach 52.7 in March 2026 — a multi-year high that signals genuine expansion in domestic manufacturing activity. […]

What Is Actually Driving the Freight Right Now The surge in freight movement that started in late April and is accelerating through May 2026 is not the organic demand recovery that small carriers have been waiting three years to see. It is, in large part, a tariff front-load. Shippers who import goods from China, Mexico, […]

Most small carriers have never heard of National Small Business Week. That is not a knock — it tends to get covered as a general small business story and the trucking press largely ignores it. But the 2026 Virtual Summit running May 5 and 6 has a session lineup that maps directly onto the challenges […]

If you have been running the load board for the past three years, you know what the bottom felt like. Loads sitting for hours. Brokers lowballing you on every call. Rates that barely covered fuel, let alone the truck payment. That was the freight recession — and it held from 2022 through most of 2025. […]

The mood has shifted. After three years of one of the most brutal freight downturns in modern trucking history, the data is finally moving in the right direction. Spot van rates have climbed for seven consecutive months. Load-to-truck ratios are at multi-year highs. Carrier exits have been accelerating, tightening the supply side of the equation. […]

Most small carriers operate their entire business through a load board. The freight comes through a broker, the rate gets negotiated down, the carrier moves the load, gets paid on net-30 or net-45 (or quick pay/factoring), and then goes back to the board looking for the next one. That cycle is familiar. It is also […]

There is no show like it in this industry. The Mid-America Trucking Show — MATS — returns to the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville from March 26 through March 28, 2026, and if you operate a small trucking company, an owner-operator business, or a fleet under twenty trucks, the question of whether you should go […]

Every cycle creates the same temptation. Rates start to firm up. Capacity thins out. Enforcement tightens. Someone tells you, “Now’s the time to grow.” And for some carriers, that will be true. But for many others, scaling in 2026 without the right foundation will quietly turn a survivable business into a fragile one. The mistake […]

Part One laid the groundwork for why knowing your numbers matters in trucking. Not in a motivational way. Not in a “be a better business owner” cliché way. But in a very real, very practical sense: if you don’t know what it actually costs you to run your truck, you’re not negotiating freight — you’re […]

At Playbook, we’ve recently partnered with ATBS, one of the most trusted accounting and advisory firms in trucking, to help owner-operators and small carriers get clearer on something that has quietly become a competitive advantage in today’s market: understanding profitability at a granular level. Not estimates. Not averages. Not what worked last year. Real numbers, built […]

With 2025 almost in the books, the smartest thing a small carrier can do right now isn’t chase one more load — it’s slow down just enough to decide what 2026 actually needs to look like. If you’re reading this with less than two weeks left in the year, you’re right on time. Not late. […]

Going from a straight truck to a semi doesn’t end when you get the keys. That’s when the real differences start to show. In Part One, we talked about the decision to move from a box truck into a semi — the systems, discipline, and readiness required before you ever sign paperwork. Part Two is […]

A lot of people start trucking behind the wheel of a box truck. It makes sense. It’s cheaper to enter, easier to insure, simpler to operate, and gives you a way to learn without jumping straight into the deep end. A box truck feels like the starter home of trucking — a stepping stone toward […]

When you’re staring at that lease-on contract, it’s easy to get tunnel vision. You see the logo, the promise of steady freight, maybe a fuel card or a shiny dispatch app — and you start thinking this might finally be the break you need. But that signature can change everything. Whether you lease your truck […]

When used the right way, AI can handle all of the processes that you wished you had, but you just couldn’t find the bandwidth to build them out.

Contributed Content If you’ve ever thought about hauling FEMA loads, now’s the time to get your paperwork in order. FEMA’s Transportation Service Provider (TSP) program opens registration once a year — and if you miss it, you’ll be sitting on the sidelines when emergency freight starts moving. Getting approved isn’t complicated, but it does take […]

Over 8 out of 10 attendees walked into Amazon RelayCon 2025 looking to grow — not survive — and the event made one thing clear: for the right type of small carrier, Relay is a business model worth studying.