Bulkloads Podcast

Watch on YouTube Nobody really knows how much grain is in the pile. Rebulk is a Kansas City startup using LiDAR and a mobile app to scan bulk commodity piles and return exact volume and tonnage, and co-founders Warren and Cole joined us to explain how it works. Grain, feed, fertilizer, sand, salt, landscape rock, even raw tree logs with no defined pile shape. Walk around it with your phone, and the app tells you what is on the ground. Warren came out of Milk Movement building supply chain systems for the dairy industry, where he kept noticing feed piles that nobody could account for. Cole spent his career in software engineering at Garmin and Bayer Crop Science before moving into AI startups.

They met at a Kansas City entrepreneur event called Startup Crawl, became friends, and started a company doing social media transcription before pivoting to bulk inventory. Their first pilot was with Cargill at a partner dairy farm, with a 95 percent accuracy target they say they exceeded. The Andersons are now deploying their LiDAR units on fertilizer piles. They got into Y Combinator, spent three months in San Francisco, and moved back to Kansas City anyway because that is where bulk trucking, rail and agriculture actually meet. We also get into where this goes next: rail car inventory for covered hoppers you cannot scan, transload sites running flat, tank and silo storage, chain of custody from rail to truck to barge, and an accounting ledger that generates invoices off scale tickets instead of chasing faxed paperwork and Excel files. Warren and Cole talk honestly about selling technology into an industry that runs ten to fifteen years behind, why they do not charge a customer until they go live, and the advice they would give anyone sitting on an idea they have not built yet. 0:00 What Is Rebulk 0:34 Feed Piles Nobody Could Account For 2:47 The Cargill Pilot 4:10 Cole's Background and a Three Person Team 4:49 Cold Outreach and Landing The Andersons 7:26 What LiDAR Actually Is 8:22 From Fixed Sensors to a Phone App 9:29 What You Do With the Number 11:55 How Accurate Is It 13:03 Launch Date and What It Costs 13:58 Rail Cars, Transload and Barge 17:07 Could This Replace a $500,000 Scale? 18:54 Kansas City, Startup Crawl and Y Combinator 21:15 Advice for Anyone Sitting on an Idea 23:43 Selling Tech to Rural America 28:34 They Don't Charge Until You Go Live 31:07 Invoicing Straight Off Scale Tickets

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Frankie Wilmot didn't grow up in trucking — he married into it. A former finance guy, Frankie became CEO of Corcoran Transportation Group about four years ago, right as the industry was heading into one of its worst downturns in history. In this conversation, he takes us through the full story: two cousins who started competing trucking companies in Billings, Montana back in the 1960s, a business that split apart across a generation, and how it came back together into one operation running roughly 150 trucks across four specialized fleets — including an Alaska division that runs freight up ice roads to Prudhoe Bay. Frankie gets into what it actually took to consolidate four separate companies (four payrolls, four software systems, four everything) into one organization, why unfiltered growth kills more trucking companies than it saves, and how staying diversified across freight types has kept the business steady even when individual segments slow down. He also opens up about the challenge of leading a business he joined by marriage rather than blood, why 176 people depending on the company keeps him up at night in a good way, and why he believes truck drivers are the most underappreciated workers in the country.

Chapters:

0:00 – Intro: Meet Frankie Wilmot, CEO of Corcoran Transportation Group

0:51 – The History of the Corcoran Family Business

2:29 – Inside the Fleet: Four Divisions, 150 Trucks

4:06 – Billings, Montana & Where They Run

7:54 – The Business Behind the Freight: Grain, Doubles & More

9:28 – From Finance to Trucking: What Changed

11:46 – Trucking as the Backbone of Capitalism

13:14 – Family, Employees & Consolidating Four Companies Into One

15:41 – Lessons on Scaling & Avoiding Growth for Growth's Sake

22:06 – Drivers, Shops & How the Business Runs Day to Day

27:53 – Family, Faith & the Alaska Operation

33:00 – Why Truckers Are the Backbone of America

Watch on YouTube Ted Fyock Jr. spent six years as an Army armor officer, deployed to Iraq with the 3rd Infantry Division, and then built a career in consulting before starting Carolina Expressways, a bulk freight brokerage, from nothing. Jared Flinn sat down with Ted at Fort Hunt, Virginia, on land George Washington once owned, to walk the whole road. Winston-Salem roots and a family that has served in nearly every American conflict since the Revolutionary War. ROTC at Appalachian State and a commission in 2007, at the height of the surge. Kuwait, Baghdad, and Sadr City. Marrying at 24 and meeting his wife in Paris at the six month mark of a twelve month deployment. Then twelve years at Deloitte Consulting that ended when DOGE cut roughly $20 million of the contract work he was leading and a reduction in force followed. At Oktoberfest at his church, he turned to his wife and told her he was going to start a business. The back half is the freight education. Why he chose bulk instead of a saturated broker market, what his first Bulk Freight Conference in Branson did for a guy with zero industry experience, and the tuition he has paid in year one, including a truck hauling corn that was struck by a CSX train. He gets into how a brand new brokerage gets in a shipper's door, why veteran owned is more than a line on a website, how running supply for a tank company translates to moving hoppers, moving a skid steer to a private island, and where Carolina Expressways is headed by 2030. Faith, family, and 250 years of American opportunity close it out. CHAPTERS

00:00 Fort Hunt, Virginia, on land George Washington owned

01:34 A family that has served since the Revolutionary War

04:00 ROTC at Appalachian State and commissioning in 2007

05:11 What an armor officer actually does

07:05 Married at 24, then a year apart

10:21 Kuwait, Baghdad, and Sadr City

13:20 Coming home and the assignment at Walter Reed

17:53 Leaving the Army at the six year mark

19:55 Twelve years at Deloitte Consulting

23:01 DOGE, $20 million in contracts, and a layoff

27:02 "I think I'm going to start a business"

27:49 How Carolina Expressways got its name

33:05 Why he chose bulk freight

34:38 First trip to the Bulk Freight Conference in Branson

40:01 A load of corn and a CSX train

47:48 How a brand new broker gets in the door

57:41 Why veteran owned is more than a marketing line

01:00:38 The military is a logistics organization

01:06:19 Where Carolina Expressways goes by 2030

01:13:04 Faith, family, and 250 years of opportunity

Watch on YouTube Emery Sapp & Sons is 100% employee owned, 3,000 employee owners strong, with 98 millionaires and about 600 trucks on the road every day. Jared Flinn sat down with co-CEO Robert Gillis in Columbia, Missouri to talk about what happens when a founder sells his company to the people who built it. Billy Sapp started in 1972 because the civil contractors wouldn't show up on time, so he did the work himself. In 1999 he and his partners sold the whole thing to their employees through an ESOP. Twenty six years later, 15 new millionaires were made in a single year, and most of them work in the field. Robert breaks down how the ESOP actually works, why about a quarter of every employee's salary goes into it, and why more owners don't take that path. He also gets into the $2.8 billion I-70 reconstruction between Kansas City and St. Louis, the $608 million stretch ESS won coming out of St. Louis, the broken gas tax that funds our roads, and the freight side of heavy civil, including the 600 company trucks plus the third party haulers, quarry trucks, and brokers it takes to keep aggregate moving. If you haul rock, asphalt, or aggregate, this is a look at the other end of the load. CHAPTERS

00:00 Meet Robert Gillis, co-CEO of Emery Sapp & Sons

01:55 Billy Sapp, 1972, and the problem that started the company

03:30 What an ESOP actually is, in plain terms

06:43 Why more owners don't sell to their employees

10:30 98 millionaires, and 59% of them work in the field

12:04 If it's in the dirt, on the dirt, or over the dirt

14:00 The $2.8 billion I-70 rebuild and the $608 million job

19:30 The gas tax problem nobody talks about

22:25 What trucking really means to a heavy civil contractor

23:56 600 company trucks and the third party haulers behind them

26:05 Why this company runs with two CEOs

31:08 3,000 retirements riding on your decisions

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Jesse Knight bought a four-axle dump truck the fall after he graduated high school in 1992, because there wasn't enough family farm ground left for a third man. Thirty-five years later, Knight Trucking runs roughly 40 trucks out of Lebo, Kansas, split evenly between end dumps and pneumatics, hauling rock, sand, salt, and food-grade freight across the Midwest.

In this episode, Jared Flinn sits down with Jesse and his son Colby for a conversation two decades in the making, Jared first knocked on this door 20 years ago working truck logistics at Bartlett Grain. Jesse walks through the whole climb: leasing to a local rock hauler and sitting four months every winter, merging equipment with his dad and brother to form Knight Trucking in 1996, running the business out of his parents' house with his mom keeping the books, and then landing the I-70 milling and aggregate contracts that forced him to scale from a few trucks to nearly 60 almost overnight, while still driving one himself.

He's candid about the parts most operators won't discuss: why he walked away from construction work when the risk stopped matching the reward, why he converted his owner operator fleet into company assets, how he prices freight so the truck actually makes money, what the Peterbilt 386 rollout cost him in repainted hoods, and why chasing kosher certification for his food-grade salt trailers produced about six loads before the business dried up.

Colby shares his side too, diesel tech certificate, years in the shop, and getting handed the dispatch board when his dad left for a three-month trip. It closes on the two things Jesse says actually matter after 35 years: drivers who've stayed 10 to 30 years, and a family that never let the business divide it.

⏱️ TIMECODES

0:00 - 20 Years Later: Full Circle in Lebo, Kansas

1:22 - No Room Left on the Family Farm

1:58 - Buying the First Dump Truck in 1992

3:19 - Merging the Family Equipment: Knight Trucking is Born

5:38 - The I-70 Project: A Few Trucks to 60 in Months

8:30 - What Milling Actually Is (And Why It Takes So Many Trucks)

10:11 - How a "Snot-Nosed Kid" Won Big Construction Contracts

11:05 - Becoming a Spotlight Carrier for Cargill Deicing Salt

14:14 - Moving 200,000 Tons of Rock Across Kansas

16:51 - End Dumps vs. Hoppers: The Weight Disadvantage Nobody Talks About

20:27 - Colby's Story: From the Shop to the Dispatch Desk

23:42 - The Fleet Today: 50/50 End Dumps and Pneumatics

25:03 - Why He Rolled His Owner Operators Into Company Trucks

27:04 - "If I Tell Them I'll Keep Them Busy, I Mean It"

29:36 - Competing With the Big Kansas City Carriers

32:34 - The Kosher Certification That Produced 6 Loads

37:53 - Truck and Trailer Specs (And the Peterbilt 386 Nightmare)

42:54 - Surviving Fuel Volatility and Surcharges

43:53 - The Story Behind the Rocking K Brand

45:51 - Selling Out of the Farm and Cattle Side

48:46 - "It's the Drivers That Keep Driving Me"

49:37 - Why He Hates Watching Families Divide

On his deathbed, Keith Titus told his son: "You're not welcome at Page. I have a plan, and you're not part of it."

Three years later, the plan had failed. The company was down from 230 trucks to 70, losing a million dollars a year, and the bank had cut them off. Then Dan's mom — a 27-year school bus driver who never worked a day in the business — made a decision that changed everything: she put every dollar of her husband's life insurance into the company. "I grew up on a dirt-poor farm. I've got no problem going back there."

In this episode, Dan Titus of Page Trucking sits down with us in upstate New York to share one of the most incredible comeback stories in bulk freight: five generations on the Titus family farm, a trucking company started in 1974 with $5,000 from his great-grandfather, losing his dad and grandfather a year apart, and rebuilding Page into 500 trucks, 900 trailers, and 650 families — hauling everything from grain to hazardous waste to 1,400° molten metal down the highway. Oh, and they heat their warehouses with Bitcoin miners.

⏱️ CHAPTERS

00:00 Outgrowing the building (again)

01:56 Five generations on the Titus farm — Cato, NY, since 1809

02:32 Dad starts brokering freight without Grandpa knowing

05:28 $5,000 from Great-Grandpa to start a trucking company

06:00 Why it's called "Page" — the $250 authority

08:07 Why his dad chose trucking over farming

13:24 "You're not welcome at Page" — his dad's dying plan

15:21 Mom inherits a collapsing business

21:05 Betting the life insurance money on the company

22:37 Half the pay, twice the hours — Dan comes home

25:45 Buying the business back from Mom

26:40 Teamsters, a $3M pension liability & near-bankruptcy

29:00 From 230 trucks… to 70… to 500 today

32:37 Closed-loop hauling: scrap, dross & aluminum

34:27 Hauling 1,400° molten metal on the highway

38:24 Overweight permits & custom trailer designs

43:40 The Goulet Trucking acquisition

51:42 Why waste hauling is huge in the Northeast

56:22 Heating warehouses with Bitcoin miners

01:04:18 Keith Titus — the next generation

01:09:45 No handouts: earning your way into the family business

01:14:25 The chip on his shoulder — out-innovating $20B competitors

01:20:38 "I'm not ready" — why Page will never sell

01:24:13 Raising sharks, not minnows

ABOUT BULKLOADS

We started 15 years ago connecting bulk carriers with shippers and brokers in the ag and bulk industry — and today we're much more than a load board. Our mission is simple: serve this industry, support small businesses and trucking families, and help them succeed.

They fined him $18 million. He built a diesel empire anyway. Jerad Wittwer grew up the son of a St. George milkman and rancher, overhauled his first engine at 13, and turned a passion for horsepower into Performance Diesel Inc. (PDI) — one of the most recognized names in diesel performance.

But the road there ran straight through one of the most controversial chapters in trucking: EPA investigations, deleted trucks, and an $18 million federal fine. In this episode, Jerad sits down with Jared Flinn for an unfiltered conversation about the whole journey — the rise, the reckoning, and the redemption.

He opens up about the mistakes he made at the top, how his faith and family pulled him back, and how PDI reinvented itself into a manufacturer building 12,000+ part numbers that beat OEM quality. Today the company is on track for $55–60 million in revenue, growing 22% a year — and Jerad still isn't for sale. This is a story about horsepower, risk, faith, and the relentless pursuit of building something better.

⏱️ CHAPTERS

0:00 – Welcome & St. George Roots

2:07 – His Grandpa, His Dad & the Milk Route

6:08 – Work Ethic & Overhauling His First Engine at

13 9:57 – Trade School & Early Mechanic Days

12:02 – Marriage, the Milk Route & a Walmart Detour

17:33 – Taking the Leap: Starting Performance Diesel

21:57 – The Tune-Up Boom Years

28:28 – "The Smoke Don't Mean It's Broke"

30:35 – Getting Into Semis & Manufacturing Parts

35:00 – When Emissions Regulations Hit

37:00 – The EPA Comes Knocking

44:58 – The $18 Million Fine

46:07 – The Comeback & Being the Only Company Released

47:36 – Reinventing PDI: 12,000 Parts & Better Than OEM

54:01 – Going Global & the "Gucci of Diesel"

55:45 – The Partner Buyout & Funding Growth

1:01:37 – Vision, Family & the $200 Million Goal

1:08:16 – The Future of Trucking: Autonomous & Electric

1:11:27 – Faith, Peace & Staying Grounded

1:16:14 – Dream It & Do It

Bill Wallis went to work at 13 to help his family. He served in the 101st Airborne, came home, and bought a single gas station in Cuba, Missouri in 1968. Today Wallis Companies runs 67 stores, a 42 truck bulk fleet moving 120 loads a day, and employs around 1,400 people. In this episode, Matt and Alan take us inside the fuel hauling world most truckers never see: the predictive dispatch tech, the back to back state safety awards, why their turnover is almost zero, and the tribute show truck they built for Bill called "Blue Collar Roots."

CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro: Meet Matt and Alan

0:41 From a K9 trainer and a livestock hauler to Wallis

5:18 How Bill Wallis started it all in 1968

8:34 One gas station to 67 stores and 1,400 employees

12:40 The Covid pivot into ag hauling (and finding BulkLoads)

15:10 Inside the fleet: 42 trucks running 24/7

18:26 Where the fuel actually comes from

19:13 The art of maximizing every load

21:13 What keeps them up at night

25:37 Three generations of a family run company

32:30 Hauling hazmat: the safety culture

34:23 Winning the state fleet safety award twice

38:38 "Blue Collar Roots": the tribute show truck

Subscribe for more real stories from the people moving America's bulk freight.

#trucking #fuelhauling #familybusiness #bulkfreight #BulkLoads

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qF-YbIEGZJM

Rob and Kate have been together since high school. Years ago they took over the family farm and trucking operation, doubled the business, and then watched 2025 turn into the hardest year of their lives.

In this episode they get honest about what it actually takes to run a trucking company as a husband and wife team. The 16-hour days through the freight recession. The financial calls that kept them up at night. The hardest decision they ever had to make. And how they protected their marriage and their kids while fighting to keep the trucks moving.

If you run a fleet, drive for one, or you are trying to survive this market alongside the people you love, this conversation is going to hit home.

Chapters

00:00 A Different Company Than the Last Time We Talked

01:51 Building Trucking Jobs Young Families Actually Want

02:50 Why Kate Walked Away From Her Career

05:39 Cutting Costs by Bringing Everything In-House

08:00 How They Doubled the Business in 5 Years

09:14 "2025 Was a Bloodbath"

09:34 When the Freight Recession Followed Them Home

10:52 The Support That Got Them Through the Worst Year

13:23 Trauma Bonding and Mental Health in Trucking

15:40 Yin and Yang: How Two Opposites Run a Company

17:21 "I Haven't Seen Our Bank Account in 5 Years"

17:53 Why Rob Has to Pitch His Own Wife to Buy a Truck

22:15 "I Have a Name": More Than the Owner's Wife

22:46 The Hardest Call They Ever Had to Make

26:43 Retire at 52? Building the Long-Term Vision

29:10 Working Yourself Out of Your Own Business

30:05 The One Job Rob Can't Replace: Sales

34:07 Will Their Kids Take Over the Family Business?

38:01 Legacy Without Setting Your Kids Up to Fail

41:30 Real Advice for Surviving a Freight Recession

43:46 The Covid Mistake That Cost Them Later

45:36 Who's Really in Your Corner When It Gets Hard

50:06 Closing: People Serving People

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Bulk Insurance Group - https://www.bulkinsurancegroup.com/?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=Video&utm_campaign=Grover_Podcast

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Tom Keller spec'd his first truck at 20 years old to haul watermelons off his family's farm. He'd drive a load to Indianapolis, not like the price, keep driving to Detroit, sell them, and set the cash on the kitchen table — then do it again the next morning.

That hustle became Keller Logistics Group: 350 trucks, four divisions, and $200 million in sales out of Defiance, Ohio.

In this episode, Jared Flinn sits down with Bryan Keller and Jonathan Wolfrum to unpack how a melon farmer's instinct for finding the next opportunity built a company that's survived every freight cycle since — including the recession that just leveled half the dry van market. They get into the speculative warehouse bets, walking away from General Motors, why they moved into bulk and ag freight, and what it actually takes to be named a Best Fleet to Drive For nine years running.

If you're a carrier, owner-operator, or fleet owner trying to figure out your next move, this one's full of plays you can run.

➡️ Hauling bulk or looking to grow your freight? Find loads and grow your operation at https://bulkloads.com?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=Video&utm_campaign=Keller_Podcast

🎥 Want your story featured on the channel? Get featured at https://bulkloadsmedia.com

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Meeting Tom Keller

00:24 – The watermelon farm that started it all

01:22 – The Detroit melon run (cash on the kitchen table)

03:05 – From farm machinery to five trucks

04:10 – The thank-you card that landed Bryan the job

05:48 – "Bryan, we gotta be organized"

07:14 – Out-engineering the big carriers

08:58 – Scaling from 20 trucks and the warehouse gamble

12:39 – The 332,000 sq ft Dallas bet

15:04 – Walking away from General Motors

16:17 – The Campbell Soup phone call that changed everything

17:08 – Jonathan joins — 350 trucks today

20:48 – Faith, the prayer room, and "give to grow"

21:38 – Inside the Ignite Academy

25:29 – Why Keller moved into bulk and ag

29:54 – Farm roots run deep

32:12 – Breaking through growth plateaus with EOS

35:36 – Building a legacy, not a payday

36:39 – 9 years as a Best Fleet to Drive For

38:37 – The driver advisory board

42:53 – Closing thoughts