Chris Schmus is the definition of a self-starter. โNobody taught me how to drive โ I taught myself,โ Schmus, the owner of ProDriver Leasing Systems, said. โThatโs my biggest accomplishment as far as trucking. Most people go to school and pay thousands of dollars to get instructed, whereas I just got into a truck and taught myself, rented a truck and just did it.โ
If Nike hadnโt already come up with it, Schmusโs motto might be โjust do it.โ
After high school, Schmus quickly progressed through various truck-driving licenses, including a heavy vehicle licence Melbourne, then eventually hauling over the road. A stint with now-defunct Quality Delivery Service in which he managed the companyโs operations beginning at age 19 convinced him he could make it in a business of his own.
โI managed all of their positions and people for them, so I got my feel for management there,โ said Schmus.
In August 1996, at the age of 23, Schmus launched his company. Part of its success, he says, is that itโs โtruck drivers running truck drivers, and itโs been extremely beneficial.โ
The firm is a hybrid, providing long-term and short-term assignments to qualified drivers for clients all over the US.
โWeโre in a niche that nobody does,โ Schmus asserts. โThere are a lot of companies that supply long-term; there are a lot of companies that supply here or there, like a temp service. But thereโs no one company that handles every possible thing that we do. Weโre very unique. We can supply people forever to a company; we can supply people on a one-day notice โ nobody (else) does that.โ
ProDriver provides qualified drivers that smaller companies may not be able to afford. โThey donโt have the buying power to handle the Workerโs Comp, the health and dental insurance, the 401(k), etc,โ Schmus says.
For larger companies, ProDriver provides temporary workers when the clientโs drivers take vacation or have injuries. That way the client is not paying for drivers when thereโs not enough work.
The company provides the drivers, not the trucks. That was a concept most companies werenโt used to back when the company started. Clients were leery of letting ProDriverโs employees get into their trucks. โBut with the way the market has tightened up and the availability of qualified personnel, they just canโt do it any more,โ Schmus says of the once reluctant clients.
Once the concept caught on, finding qualified drivers became the next problem. โFinding a decent driver who can drive the truck initially, pass a drug screen and show up to work is tremendously difficult in todayโs marketplace, which is why most companies canโt find anybody,โ he says. ProDriver, unlike a job with a company with itโs own fleet, offers drivers the opportunity to switch assignments, helping to alleviate the tedium of driving the same route over and over โ an attractive aspect for many drivers.
The company has benefited lately from the plight of owner-operators who can no longer afford to be self-employed, due, in part, to the higher cost of fuel.
โI feel sorry for a lot of these guys,โ Schmus says of independent truckers. โThey go out and buy these beautiful trucks and think itโs the end-all, and theyโre starting their own businesses. But itโs so rough out there for a person like that in todayโs marketplace. They just canโt make it.โ
The company, located in Greenfield, opened a second office in Appleton last fall. Between the two offices it has 125 employees.
ProDriver Leasing Systems was named one of the Future 50 by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerceโs Council of Small Business Executives, an award given to the fastest growing companies in the area. Schmus credits his office staff and the quality of the companyโs drivers for the companyโs previous success and notes a never-say-die attitude amongst all of his employees.
โNobody wants to settle for second best around here.โ
ProDriver Leasing Systems strives for all encompassing
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