Feb. 4, 2025

From Truck Driver to VP Colby Varley's Journey in Refrigerated Transport

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In this episode of the Living the Dream podcast, host Curveball welcomes seasoned leader Colby Varley, Vice President and co-owner of Advanced Transportation Services (ATS). Colby shares his journey from growing up in Salinas, California, to leading a successful refrigerated transportation company. He discusses the complexities of logistics in the perishable food industry, the importance of service over cost, and how hands-on experience shaped his career. Join us as we explore the ins and outs of refrigerated freight and the future of ATS!

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome um, to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Chee Chee, welcome um, to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast. A show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today I am joined by seasoned leader Kobe Varley. Kobe works in the transportation refrigerated transportation area.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>He serves as the vice president and co owner of Advanced Transportation Services, better known as ats. It is a non asset based carrier that has been around for 40 years.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Colby has a unique background filled with hands on experience and strategic leadership. So we're going to be talking to him about what he does and what he's up to. So Kobe, thank you so much for joining me today.

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> Kobe Varley>Hey Curtis, thanks so much for having me on. Happy to be here.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

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> Kobe Varley>Yeah, absolutely. Um, born and raised here in Salinas, California, which is uh, the salad bowl of the world. So for eight months out of the year we produce um, pretty much any leafy greens bag salads that you might find at your local supermarket or uh, in a restaurant. It comes here from Salinas most likely.

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> Kobe Varley>Um, I had the opportunity to attend Fresno State University.

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> Kobe Varley>Graduated there with a bachelor's uh, in ag business. Um, as soon as I did that I came back um, straight to Salinas and continued um, uh my work um, with a local asset based trucking company, uh, which we specialized in less uh, than truckload or ltl, uh, freight, uh, into the San Francisco and Los Angeles markets. Um, and that was really the launch pad for me. Um, you know I had a general understanding of some uh, produce. My dad still to the day is a, a produce broker. So growing up, you know, in and out of produce offices, uh, whenever we travel somewhere we normally visit like the local produce market or whatnot. Um, so I, I've grown up around it. But um, working for that local uh, ltl company was really a launch pad for me. Um, just the complexity of what they did.

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> Kobe Varley>Um, you know, leaving Salinas at midnight with you know, eight to ten customers on a truck, uh, down to LAX to you know, five, six deliveries with um, to catch a flight, you know, at six, seven o'clock in the morning. I mean we were doing what FedEx couldn't even do. Or still to this day they, they can't do a FedEx UPS, you know, you gotta have a parcel in by four to get it overnighted by the next day. I mean we were leaving six, eight hours after them and beating them to the punch.

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> Kobe Varley>So um, and then in 20, uh, I guess it's going to be nine years this year. So, um, had the opportunity to come to ATS as a salesperson and worked, uh, my tail off. And, uh, in March of 2024, had the opportunity to, uh, buy out some existing partners, um, that have taken the company 40 years. And uh, my partner and I now are looking to take it another 40.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah. So, kind of tell us about ATS.

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> Kobe Varley>Yeah, so, uh, we're pretty unique. Uh, we're formed in 1984 to service the fresh fruit and produce industry. Uh, and now that's changed, um, to pretty much any highly perishable food and produce. So, uh, we are a niche brokerage. Um, I would say 99% of our business is some sort of refrigeration. Whether that's frozen, um, or fresh. That's, that's what we haul. Um, we service, um, all North America.

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> Kobe Varley>Um, we do around 500 shipments a week.

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> Kobe Varley>And um, it's really been, uh, built off service. Ah, you know, there's obviously a lot of competition in what we do. Um, we are not the cheapest option. We are not striving to be the cheapest option. And, uh, we're striving to be the best option. Um, so, you know, we, we do charge for what the service that we provide. But we feel that, uh, we provide a service, um, and obviously the customer is very important to us as well as our vendors, our carriers. Um, you know, those relationships are just as important.

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> Kobe Varley>Obviously we wouldn't be here without them. And I think that's really been the key to our success is, uh, being able to balance your customer and your carrier group, uh, the same. Um, you know, sometimes brokerages can get a bad rap for, uh, being tough or not so great to their carrier base. And that is definitely not us. Um, you know, our leadership, uh, drove a truck. I had the opportunity to drive a truck. Um, a lot of our employees have driven trucks or worked in the industry in different facets of the business.

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> Kobe Varley>And uh, I think that's enabled us to take us where we are.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, I know you say that you guys aren't the cheapest, but you do provide premium services in a price driven industry.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So kind of tell us how you guys are successful even though you might not be the cheapest option. Why do people choose you when they could choose a cheaper option?

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> Kobe Varley>Well, there's, there's a lot that goes into that. Um, and especially you got, you have to look at the total cost. So what I mean by that is let's just say, for example, I'm 300 higher than somebody else on a particular shipment. Well, if that particular shipment that you think that you're gonna save 300 on by getting, you know, getting another service and that that truck is not as reliable or, you know, your risk factor goes up 10x. Um, and now that load of produce that was supposed to be there on Sunday night at midnight for you to sell to your customers isn't there until Tuesday night at midnight. And you had to go source all that product from your neighbor to cover your orders. And now you just spent $2,000 more than what you would have paid on that produce. Did you really save that $300? So that's kind of our approach. Um, you know, our on time delivery metrics are, you know, 97, 98, 99% for most of our customers. Um, and we track all that data and share all that data with our customers.

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> Kobe Varley>Um, it's a very, I'd say it's become a very data driven business. Um, you know, are you on time, are you rejecting tenders? Um, what's your load to claim ratio? Um, you know, and that's another big thing. You know, unfortunately in this business things do happen, right? Accidents happen, uh, whether it's the driver's fault, whether it's uh, a car in front of them's fault, or you know, sometimes it's just a mechanical issue that something becomes uh, catastrophic. Um, you know, our belief is, is that uh, our customer or whoever is paying us to deliver that load shouldn't be responsible for going and fighting with the insurance company. And I don't know how many customers out there have uh, had the opportunity to um, try and collect payment from a trucking insurance company. But I can tell you that it's seems to be one of the most difficult things to do. I mean they, they fight you tooth and nail to pay that bill. And we uh, request an invoice from the customer and pay that invoice immediately. I need that customer to be selling more highly perishable food and produce, not fighting with an insurance company. Um, so that's another value. Uh, add that we have, you know, other brokerages would provide, uh, the carrier's insurance and tell the customer good luck.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>What, tell us about some of the, the, the things you transport. Like what, what does the ATS transport.

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> Kobe Varley>Sure. So again, anything highly perishable food and produce. So strawberry, I mean any fruits and vegetables. We um, service some protein customers. So beef, chicken, pork, seafood, um, a lot of that is frozen. Uh, um, there's also frozen foods, frozen vegetables, any kind of, um, you know, drinks, beverages. Um, you got your tropical fruits, pineapples, bananas.

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> Kobe Varley>So those are a majority of what we do is probably highly perishable, uh, produce, you know, all your lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower. I mean the list is endless. Melons, water, you know, all the melons. Um, so it's really a wide variety of different temperature, uh, controlled products.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay. Well, you know, your career path is amazing. You know, you did it all from truck driving to dispatching. So you know, you have a lot of hands on experience. So talk to the listeners about, you know, you know, kind of your career path. You know, I know you kind of mentioned some of it, but you know, the importance of, of the, the way that your career path went.

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> Kobe Varley>Yeah, I was just, um, I had a lot of great opportunities kind of come my way and I took full advantage uh, of those opportunities and was always striving for more, um, and how I could do more and be better and learn more. Um, but working really through every facet kind of, um, from driving to loading trucks to unloading, to um, seeing the physical product, you know, all the different varieties. I mean, um, there's so many different pack sizes and, and um, different commodities, you know. I mean lettuce can come so many different ways. Right? It could be celery, cello 24s, it could be liner 24s, it could be cello 30s, could be liner 30.

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> Kobe Varley>So learning all those little things, what it looks like, um, really was kind of the launch pad, you know, I mean for me, I, I'm, I can read something and understand it, but when you really are hands on, um, I, I do a lot better. So, you know, going and picking up at some of these places, you know, obviously earlier in my career or delivering to some of these places or, you know, I knew, I've been there, I've, I've touched it, I've checked in there. I know exactly where the check in office is, you know, or I know the check in guy, the guy that's behind the office window, you know, um, hm. And just trying to be polite, kind, friendly to everyone and um, you know, taking care of people, whether it's, you know, sometimes you're running a little bit behind and it's like, hey, I'll send some pizzas over there tomorrow, you know, you can make friends pretty quick, um, on the cooler level or whatnot. So, you know, just took, took advantage of a lot of opportunities and um, just worked really hard, you know, I mean nothing's handed to you in this world.

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> Kobe Varley>And, um, I was kind of.

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> Kobe Varley>That, uh, was instilled in me in a young age. And, um, I knew that success was, uh, obtainable. But it's just a long process and it's just, you know, kind of like Groundhog Day, right? You got to wake up and do it every day, even though you don't sometimes feel like it. But, um, just to get that little glimmer that, you know, um, the right thing's going to happen and you're going to propel yourself forward.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>What advice would you give someone looking to break into the logistic logistics industry?

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> Kobe Varley>Uh, the advice I would give is try and find, uh, um, exactly what niche you're trying to be in. Obviously, the logistics industry is huge, right? There's so many different niches. There's dry van, there's tanker, there's flatbed, there's heavy haul, refrigerated. Um, but from my experience, what I, I can see is the people that do really well are experts in their field.

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> Kobe Varley>They really focus in on kind of one area.

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> Kobe Varley>Um, and they focus on that. They don't chase, you know. Oh, well, bulk, uh, calling is paying better right now. So we're going to go do that for six months and then, you know, that's not so good. So then they're over, you know, trying to do reefer because it's paying better for a second, you know. Um, so I would try and find something that you like or you think, you know, you can do well in. Stick with that.

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> Kobe Varley>Find somebody that's, uh, an expert at it and try an apprentice or, or work with them, um, to hone the skills necessary to, you know, kind of become an expert in that field and just work at it every day for years. You know, I mean, it takes years to, to get, to get going.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Tell us about any upcoming projects that you and your company are working on that listeners need to be aware of.

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> Kobe Varley>Sure. So, um, we're working on, um, a new office building that we purchased. Uh, we're looking at renovating that. Um, we're going from 1800 square feet to about 5800. Um, and we're ready to grow. So I would invite anybody, um, that is potentially thinking about becoming into refrigerated freight sales that wants to be a broker. Um, we're going to have a ton of desks that we're going to be looking to fill. And, um, you know, you can call me here at my office or send me an email, reach out to me, but, uh, I'd invite you to come, uh, sit down with us and see if we can't put something together.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Absolutely. And throw out your contact information so listeners can do that.

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> Kobe Varley>Yeah. So my email is Colby. That's C O, L, B, Y at T S Salinas S a L-I-N-A S dot com. And our office phone number is area code 831-757-4244.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All right, we'll close this out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about, that you would like to touch on any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

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> Kobe Varley>Uh, any final thoughts? No. I appreciate you having me on the show. Um, obviously, I'm on all social media platforms, um, so I would invite, um, any potential customer or any potential carrier that's interested in working with us. Um, you know, let's get on a 15 minute discovery call and see if we can help each other. Um, again, my email is colby tssalinas.com and my email is. I'm sorry, my Phone number is 831-757-4244.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Go. Ladies and gentlemen, Kobe@ATSSalinas.com if you know anybody looking to get into the refrigerated transportation field or anything like that, send them this episode. You know, follow rate, review, share, jump on your favorite podcast app, Check out the show, leave us a review, follow us, share it, Any guest or suggestion, topics. Curtis Jackson 1978@att.net is the place to send them. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Kobe, thank you for all that we do. Thank you for getting us our fresh produce, and thank you for joining me.

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> Kobe Varley>Thank you. I really appreciate it.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>For more information on the Living the Dream podcast, visit www.djcurveball.com.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>until next time, stay focused on Living the dream. Dre.