Wanna succeed as a small carrier? Get to know your neighbor.

As freight rates plummeted in the past year, those who jumped in with both feet — and maybe purchased a used truck at record-high prices — are trying to get out without breaking a leg.

“Business is hard. It is capital-intensive and if you are not prepared for that, you don’t have the resources available, you don’t understand,” Adam Wingfield, founder and managing director at Innovative Logistics Group said Thursday at the FreightWaves F3: Future of Freight Festival.

Load board reliance may be a one-way trip

Reliance on load boards takes a carrier only so far, often just one way with a load and searching for haulage to generate revenue on the back haul.

Without building mutually beneficial relationships with local businesses, most small trucking companies are destined for failure, especially when the cycle turns down as is the current situation.

“Building those relationships with small-town shippers and things like that,” Wingfield said. “You’ve got to get comfortable doing hard things.

“If you’re a carrier in Freight Alley, you’re not going to get the Kimberly-Clarks. You’re not going to get Procter & Gambles [as customers]. But you might get two loads a week from Rachel’s T-Shirt shop,” Wingfield told Rachel Premack, FreightWaves editorial director.

“This industry has always been built on relationships,” he said. “You’ve got to be intentional about building relationships. Those are the connections that can change your business.”

Smartphones are great, but they are overused.

“Over time, we forget about people,” Wingfield said. “You can’t run a business off phones and apps all the time.”

Click for more FreightWaves articles by Alan Adler.