Courtesy Behan Communication
As an entrepreneur and part-time truck driver, Mark Miller observed a trucking industry trend that he saw creating an unnecessarily heavy workload for Capital Region businesses. He saw a promising opportunity for his next business venture.
More and more businesses were turning to freight brokers and “load boards,” online marketplaces where companies could search for carriers to ship their products.
“Why would they go through all that when they could just call a local trucking company and work directly with the owners?” said Miller.
Enter Magnet Transport Group, the Kingsbury-based business started by Miller and his stepson Drew Trombley to provide cargo and freight solutions to businesses seeking to move their product around the region and across North America.
Magnet offers FTL (full truckload) and LTL (less- than-truckload) service, as well as flatbed, step-deck, and hotshot deliveries. They have expertise in carrying over-sized loads, both long and wide.
“In more than 30 years of building businesses, my experience has been that people prefer to work with people they know, like and trust,” said Miller, who purchased an Americlean residential pressure washing franchise in 1986 and grew the business into Performance Industrial, a commercial and industrial cleaning, painting and flooring system contractor, which he sold to his daughter-in-law, Karen, and son, Bill, just months before starting Magnet.
“Magnet has something that no other company has. It has me and Drew, and when we say we’re going to do something, we do it. Our motto is, ‘Exactly as promised, the first time, on time, every time. Period.’”
Miller has had a love of long-haul trucking and a commercial driver’s license since shortly after graduating from high school when he hit the road for the first time. He put long-hauling in his rearview mirror in 1986 and purchased the Americlean franchise in order to spend more time at home with his young son, but the itch to get back on the road resurfaced in his later years at the helm of Performance Industrial.
He began driving on a part-time basis for a friend who owns a trucking company, including a series of three trips that brought him to all 48 continental states.
“I realized I didn’t want to just drive a truck, I wanted to start and grow another company,” he said.
When Miller told his stepson his idea, Trombley quickly expressed interest in partnering with him. Trombley had been driving professionally for several years and was enthused by the idea of building a business.
For more information about Magnet Transport Group, call (518) 769-0205 or email info@magnettransportgroup.com.