As the Bennett Family of Companies celebrates 50 years in business, CEO Marcia Taylor is amazed the company she and her husband started reached this milestone after a difficult start.
"Growing up in Southern Illinois on a farm, it was never on my radar that I was going to move to Georgia and go to work for a trucking company," Taylor said. "But thankfully, God had a better plan for my life than I did."
Taylor's start in trucking
Taylor told FleetOwner that she and her husband bought the small trucking company in 1974 on credit. Taylor had already been working for a different small trucking company when this opportunity came up.
Starting out, the Bennett Family of Companies had 15 trucks, 30 trailers, only a few employees, and operated out of a trailer behind a truck stop. The first several years of trying to build up their business were rough, but Taylor reached a crossroads in 1981 when her husband died.
“At that point, I was left with the decision to try to take the company and see what I could do or to just move on to something else,” Taylor said. “I had three small children, so I thought, ‘You know, I've got to keep going on.’”
As a woman now owning a trucking company by herself in 1981, Taylor was unsure of how others would perceive her and whether she and the company would be taken seriously. She wasn’t even sure if the bank from which she and her husband received a business loan would continue to work with her. But as everyone watched to see how she would do, Taylor trucked on and credits multiple mentors for helping to guide her during this time.
“I had a couple of really good mentors that worked with me,” Taylor said. “I had one of my best friends that worked for us that was over dispatch by the name of Bill Ford. He became my right arm. He became the harder side of me, and I became the softer side of him. I had a couple of really wonderful mentors that were men that helped guide me along in various areas.”
Taylor told FleetOwner that there were times on sales calls when professionals preferred to talk to a man instead of her, but she never let this bother her. She would let one of the men she worked with take the reins, and as long as they got the business, that was fine with her.
See also: Women in Transportation 2024
Focused on the future
As the owner of Bennett, Taylor is now focused on highlighting and supporting women. In addition to having women in several key roles in her business, Bennett has a program called Women in the Driver’s Seat. This program recognizes and awards women in the company for their contributions and achievements as well as championing industry change with the program’s advisory board. Taylor told FleetOwner that one of the major problems the board is trying to help solve is better truck parking and amenities, especially for women.
“We're trying to work with a lot of the truck stops,” Taylor said. “In fact, TA Petro just did a ride along with one of our drivers to understand what women drivers are going through on the road. And we do a call to action to talk to truck stops about healthy food options. Health, hygiene, bathrooms, and the safety of parking, which is a big issue right now for all of our women drivers.”
A major focus for Bennett this year will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in addition to these causes. As part of this year-long celebration, Taylor is particularly excited about a coffee table book that the company's marketing team put together showing Bennett's history with photos of drivers and trucks from along the way. Taylor said the purpose of this book is to celebrate all of the people who helped Bennett become the company it is today.
For Taylor, after 50 years in business, it is the people who make her most proud.
“We have some of the same customer base that we had when we began, so I'm very proud,” Taylor said. “There are several things I'm proud of. Bennett is a family company, we are faith-based, we have a set of 12 core values, and over the years, we've worked hard to try to always maintain those core values."
"We have a family culture; there's a lot of family that works at Bennett," she continued. "A lot of people that have been there for many years are just getting ready to retire, and that's what I'm proud of. I think we've done a great job taking care of our customers. And it's always about the people for me.”
