So we identified who these partners were and assigned one or two managers to each one. The managers are responsible for maintaining the relationship with the key people from our partners. Before, whoever got along with each other ended up going for lunch or a beer. But now it's formalized, and we know who to send and who to see to get something done with a partner. So we always have three people assigned to each of our partners.
Partnerships are like marriages, and they take six months to a year to really develop.
If you're going to spend all that time trying to develop it, you don't want to do it with a company that, for example, doesn't care about service or neglects payment schedules. You have to find companies that share your values. We can't serve all our customers with our own trucks, so we need strategic partners that can pick up freight for us. But they have to think the way we do. That's a real challenge in the trucking business.