Auto Transport

Sisters – Continued from page 1

She officially joined Adriana at Maranatha Works in April 2021.

“We learned along the way. That’s how you persevere” Adriana said.”

Maranatha Works now operates through a partnership with DAA Las Vegas and with banks to pick up repos.

Adriana believes her family’s experience in picking up repos and knowing how to haul them gives them an edge.

“Repos are difficult to work with,” she said. “Because you have to figure out how to schedule every single car. And every repo company has different hours for transporters.”

It’s a challenge for the start-up and its family staff.

“We’re doing it all with just one seven-car hauler,” Adriana said.

That means some days Adriana is out on their lot in Victorville, Calif., lining up cars for her dad to pick up.

“We’re really a hands-on, family type of business,” she said.

The next challenge is expansion.

“Yes, yes, we’re trying to find another semi,” she said. “We’re looking for something that’s good but used. It just takes time to build that capital.”

Last year, the company bought a couple of pieces of land to develop.

The firm also entered the EV market through a partnership with Tropos Technologies in Silicon Valley.

The company provides smaller cab-and-chassis EVs – compact utility vehicles. Maranatha Works arranges the transport for these vehicles, sometimes bringing them from East Coast ports to California.

Currently, the pair have 10 to 15 steady clients along with some oneoffs.

“Competition is very difficult,” Adriana said. “Others can give better quotes and prices, but a lot of times that car is not going to get moved when the client wants it moved.

“Everybody goes to the lower rate, but that’s not always going to be the best service.”

Melissa said finding responsible carriers is a challenge for clients.

“Responsible carriers do preinspections,” she said. “They’re safe drivers. They know what their equipment can handle and they know it’s in good shape.”

Melissa said carriers who maintain their equipment make deadlines.

“That’s something I picked up from my dad,” she said. “He’s a very safe driver. He does inspections before he makes a pickup and after he’s done. He’s never had a maintenance issue that caused him to miss a deadline.”

He also showed her that soft skills are critical in this business.

“An intelligent person is a social person,” Melissa said. “Spanish is my dad’s first language. But despite that, he’s grown his own business and helped us start ours. He learns a lot just by talking to people, despite the language barrier. I admire him for that.”

In an email, Francisco expressed pride in his daughters’ endeavor.

“As dispatchers, they have always had my loads ready to go,” he said. “Their strong background as dispatchers allowed them to gain a lot of experience very fast.

“They have a good perspective on both the carrier side and the client’s side.”

Melissa said she’s encouraged her father to open an auto transport school to train new drivers to do things the right way.

Francisco stated there’s a need for dedicated and reliable transporters.

“The industry won’t grow unless auto transporters choose to love what they do and do it better,” he said.

Brown’s approach to marketing relies on a solid foundation of local market research, brand identity, and data analytics.

The marketing company seeks to build a company culture that allows top, multi-generational talent to flourish in the ever-evolving global economy.

“Our team has been working meticulously to develop a solution that addresses the unique challenges businesses face in these industry segments,” Brown said. “We are confident that our breadth of services will deliver the necessary tools to help our clients achieve their goals.”

Brown has even made a presentation for her 20 Group, explaining how other companies fall short in servicing BHPH.

Dealers also have situations where their Facebook or Google ad accounts get shut down and they don’t know why.

“On ad platforms like Google and Facebook – and you’re advertising for a loan – you are in a special ad category,” Brown said. “So, there are certain restrictions in how you can target and advertise on those platforms.

“On Facebook, you have to select that you are in that ad category. If you don’t, they will shut you down.”

Optimizing BHPH marketing within the policies of these web company platforms is critical.

So, Brown will help dealers get set up structurally correct so this doesn’t happen.

Brown’s father started a buy-here, pay-here dealership the year she was born.

She started working at the store out of college doing collection calls, not the cushiest experience when starting out.

So, was her major in marketing, accounting, or business?

“I was a French literature major,” Brown said, with a laugh. She planned on being a teacher, either in high school or college.

“But I realized that the enjoyment I got was the analytical side of literature and setting up systems of learning for breaking down the language and its phonetics to teach it,” she said.

“But I didn’t particularly enjoy the teaching career itself.”

It was that analytical side that helped her dad with the nuts and bolts of running a car dealership.

She later implemented his software programs, inventory manage- ment, taxes, compliance, etc.

“I did the whole back end of the dealership for about five years,” Brown said. “That’s where I learned what my strong skill set is. It’s really in process improvement – analyzing systems and improving processes for a better outcome.”

When her father retired, he helped her start a car business. Now she and Charles run their lot out of Houston.

Brown’s analytical side shows up at the dealership in how she works with BHPH customers.

Making it clear up front to the customer what the requirements are, prevents problems later.

She discussed this on a conference panel last summer.

“You have those conversations sooner, before they decide to skip or stop paying,” she said. “You have to set the expectations because you are building a relationship.”

It also means that if a repossession becomes necessary, it’s not a surprise to the customer, she said.

Brown recently explained that a strong relationship on the front end can help recover that customer in the future.

“We will finance people and sell to them again, even if they did have a repossession or voluntary repo because of circumstances,” Brown said.

If a customer fell on hard times, lost a job, or ended up in the hospital and couldn’t pay on the vehicle, that’s fine.

“If they get back on their feet, we’ll be happy to work with them again,” Brown said.

Brown makes changes in her dealer business model when needed.

At the National Independent Automobile Dealers Convention last year, she served on an underwriting panel and she mentioned that up until recently, her customers made monthly payments, but her 20 Group members “were appalled” when they heard.

As a result of that advice, Brown began transitioning to a different schedule.

“We still do have some people on monthly payments but we have a lot more on bi-weekly payments,” she said recently. “Bi-weekly payments help us stay in touch with customers more frequently and it seems to be working out better for us.

“We are excited to launch The Dream Team Media Co. and bring our expertise to the independent retailers’ market.”