Tobin Cassels, President of Southeastern Freight Lines

MidlandsBiz:
Talk a little about the early history of Southeastern Freight Lines (SEFL).  Who started the company?

Tobin Cassels:
Southeastern was started by my grandfather, Toby Cassels.  My grandfather and another man by the name C.L. Fuller owned a small trucking company named Southern States Motor Lines in the late 1940’s that had operating authority between South Carolina and Georgia and South Carolina and North Carolina.  In 1950, the two men decided to divide the company and to go their separate ways.  My grandfather started Southeastern Freight Lines with operating authority between South Carolina and Georgia.  Mr. Fuller opened Fuller Transport and operated between South Carolina and North Carolina.  At the time Southeastern had five trucks, 20 employees and a $5,000 loan. 

MidlandsBiz:
How big is the company now in terms of employees, trucks and annual revenue? 

Tobin Cassels:
Today we have almost 7,000 employees operating out of 76 service centers in 12 states and Puerto Rico.  We have approximately 2,700 tractors and 7,300 trailers.  Our annual revenue in 2007 will be approximately $740 million. 

MidlandsBiz:
There are more than 400,000 trucking companies in the U.S. alone.  What has been the key to your success?

Tobin Cassels:
I would say that the single most important key to our success has been the philosophy that my grandfather operated the company on, and the philosophy that we still embrace throughout our company today.  This philosophy is to take care of our people who take care of our customers who take care of our future.

MidlandsBiz:
What has been the most difficult challenge you have faced in your career?

Tobin Cassels:
I became President of Southeastern in 2001, which was the year of a terrible economy due not only to the recession, but also to 9-11.  This weakened economy lasted all the way through the first half of 2003.  As the new president of the company, what made this particularly challenging is that we have never had an economic lay-off in our 57 year history and conversely all of our competitors have been quick to lay-off people in an economic downturn.  It was a difficult situation, but we were able to work through it by pricing freight very low in order to keep our people working and were able to avoid laying a single person off. 

MidlandsBiz:
What are you most proud of at SEFL?

Tobin Cassels:
What we’re the proudest of is the culture that has been built in this company one day at a time over the last 57 years.  There are five key values that make up our culture and we are dogmatic about these values and work at them in every way possible.  Below are the five key values that make up the heart of our culture. 

1. Value people complete –  We are in the people business
2. Integrity – Doing the right thing is always right
3. Serving – We are here to serve
4. Continuous measurable improvement – Anything can be made better
5. Belief, alignment and teamwork – A unified team is a competitive weapon

In order to help us be objective about how successful we are in integrating our culture throughout our company, we do an anonymous employee opinion survey every year which all of our employees take.  Of the 20 questions asked on the survey, our survey results last year were 90% favorable response.  Perhaps the question that makes me the proudest is question #20 which asks, Considering all aspects, is working for Southeastern a good deal for you?  Ninety-seven percent of the people responded yes.

MidlandsBiz:
You are a nonunion shop, why?  Have you ever faced pressure to unionize, and if so, how did you handle it?

Tobin Cassels:
I started work full-time in 1981 after college and we haven’t had any pressure whatsoever to become unionized during this time.  We are a nonunion shop because our people simply don’t care for or need a union.  Our whole business model operates around teamwork and valuing each other.  We believe if you do that then there is no place or need for a union. 

MidlandsBiz:
There are two Cassels involved in the company, what roles are each of you playing right now? 

Tobin Cassels:
My father is chairman of the board and our chief executive officer and I am president and our chief operating officer.  You might be interested to know that my father is 78 years old and has been with the company almost the entire time of its existence.  When my grandfather started the company in 1950, my father was getting out of college but had to go to Korea for a few years to fight in the war.  Somewhere around 1953, he began working full-time, so he has been here for most of the company’s entire history.  Needless to say, having someone with his experience and history of the company is an awesome advantage for me and for our company.  We have a great relationship with offices side by side and we probably eat lunch together three to four times a week.  He allows me to make decisions and to make my mistakes, but he is always there whenever I need advice or to brainstorm an issue.  It’s really a win win situation.

MidlandsBiz:
SEFL has a reputation for staying out of the spotlight.  In 2006, the United Way awarded you and your father the Humanitarian of the Year Award.  Congratulations, and comment on this apparent paradox. 

Tobin Cassels:
I nominated my father for the Humanitarian of the Year Award.  He does a tremendous amount of philanthropy that no one will ever know anything about and I thought it was appropriate that I embarrass him a little bit by nominating him for this award and sharing with people some of the things he had done.  At the same time, Samuel Tennenbaum had nominated me for this award and it was the idea of the nominating committee to put these two nominations together and to give it to both of us.  Looking back on it, my dad might not would have agreed to receive the award had it not been for the fact that both he and I were receiving it.  It’s funny how things work out, but that’s how this came about. 

MidlandsBiz:
What is the current ownership structure of the company?  Have you ever been approached by anyone to buy the company?

Tobin Cassels:
The company is privately held and owned by the members of our family.  In the past, we have been approached to sell our company, but haven’t had any interest in doing so.  From time to time people ask me why we don’t sell out in order to eliminate the risk of a capital-intensive business and to be able to achieve more liquidity.  Both my father and I look at this company and our opportunities to lead it as a ministry.  How can we honor God in operating a business and how can we have a positive impact on people’s lives by trying to be part of a company that strives to value people completely and to achieve excellence in the marketplace?  On top of all of that, we both enjoy it immensely and love being a part of this company.  It is just a part of who we are.

MidlandsBiz:
Nobody likes trucks on the road.  How do you manage the public relations aspect of your industry? 

Tobin Cassels:
I find there are two basic reasons people don’t like trucks on the road.  The first is simply that they are big, and the second is that a few drivers behave themselves in a way that gives a black eye to the rest of the industry.  We obviously can’t do anything about the size of our trucks, but we can do something about how our drivers behave.  Our trucks are governed at 65 miles per hour, so this alone eliminates our trucks from speeding on the interstate or tailgating because the drivers are impatient with how slow a car is going.  While I know our drivers aren’t perfect, I cannot even remember the last complaint I’ve received concerning the driving habits of one of our drivers. 

As a side note, most of our competitors operate their trucks at similar speeds and we have found that the majority of the drivers who are operating in an unsafe manner tend to be owner-operators who own their own trucks and operate their trucks at any speed they want to.  It is unfortunate that a few bad apples can ruin the image of our entire industry.

MidlandsBiz:
Describe your leadership style.  What leaders do you most admire? 

Tobin Cassels:
My leadership style is centered around people.  I spend most of my time trying to create Belief, Alignment and Teamwork.  This may sound simple, but if you are able to create Belief, Alignment and Teamwork, it’s not difficult to create excellence.  I’m also striving hard to become a better and better servant leader.  I’m not sure that you ever arrive at that, but I believe that is the ultimate leadership style.  The leader I most admire is Jesus Christ because he was the ultimate servant leader. 

MidlandsBiz:
What challenges does your industry face over the next decade? 

Tobin Cassels:
I see three major challenges in front of our industry. 

The first challenge is the fact we are not putting enough money into our road infrastructure and we are going to see more and more congestion over the same deteriorating roads as the years go by. 

The second challenge has to do with a shortage of drivers as fewer young people want to work in the typical blue collar type jobs. 

The third challenge that is going to affect the LTL industry is the shortage of land that is being zoned for trucking to allow the service center infrastructure to be able to offer capacity as freight volumes increase over time. 

As we said earlier, people don’t like trucks and they don’t like them in their neighborhoods, so it is becoming harder and harder to find the right infrastructure as we move forward in our industry.

MidlandsBiz:
What books are you reading?

Tobin Cassels:
The book I read the most often is the best management and human relations book ever written … The Bible.  A few other books I’ve recently read include Improving your Serve by Chuck Swindoll, The Secret by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller, and Making Vision Stick by Andy Stanley.  I am getting ready to begin reading Just Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybel.

MidlandsBiz:
If you weren’t running a trucking company, what would you most like to do in the world? 

Tobin Cassels:
I would either want to coach high school basketball or be involved in some type of Christian ministry.