- Rowan Magazine - The People, the Places, the Way of Life

Mom & Me Trucking of Rockwell started business in April 2008, when diesel fuel was selling for $5 a gallon.

More than a year later, Linda DeMunbrun, the daughter in the Mom & Me operation, lives life on the road, driving an average of 3,500 miles a week.

The small company is in a tight partnership with their banker – Heidi Whitesell, vice president of commercial SBA lending for Community Bank of Rowan. Heidi calls it a triangle.

“Heidi has been there since Day One,” says Linda, who grew up in a trucking family and is living her dream.

Heidi admits their idea was “a little far-fetched” when she first heard it. “But they did their due diligence, and Linda had the business experience. The loan would have never gone through without that experience – the risk was too much.”

It also helped that the mom in the company is Becky Anderson of Old Beatty Ford Road, who for 30 years has owned Anderson Sew & So, a small business that sells sewing machines, notions and fabrics and offers sewing lessons. She knows how to pinch a dollar and she keeps the books.

But trucking was a whole new ballgame, even though Linda’s dad was a truck driver and an older brother is also a driver. Linda had eight years of driving experience, previously working for Fleetwood Transportation in Salisbury.

It was Mom’s idea to buy a truck.
And Linda said: “Where do we begin?”
They went to the bank.

Heidi sent them to the Small Business Center at Rowan Cabarrus Community College where they worked with Maggie Braun and learned how to put a business plan together. “Our goal is to increase the success rate of the businesses in Rowan and Cabarrus counties,” says Barbara Hall, director.

In an uncertain economy, the two women were able to convince the bank to issue them a small business administration (SBA) loan to buy the cab and van – a 72-foot long raspberry-colored beauty with pink, black and gray interior.

“I’m not worried about the economy,” says Linda. “If a truck is not running, somebody is not doing his job. No matter how much the economy goes down, consumables are still out there. Everything comes to you by truck. People are not going to stop eating. There’s no other way to transport.”

Heidi says a key to their success is Becky’s attention to the bottom line. “They don’t have the overhead that other companies have,” she says. Anytime the bank needs to see financials, Becky is right there.

“The nice thing about this is the openness,” says Heidi. “They stay in touch,” dropping by the bank to visit. “Some people try to hide things. The bank needs to know on the front-end. It’s a whole lot easier to do preventive maintenance.”

Becky’s ability on the financial side made it a strong deal, Heidi says. “She knows where every penny goes. And she has taught Linda very well how she impacts the bottom line (while on the road).”

Linda agrees. “Some truckers are wasteful,” she says. Linda’s rig is home, with two bunks with soft gray comforters and a laptop computer equipped with a web cam. She likes to see her family when she is talking to them. Her family meets at her truck when she passes through North Carolina or Virginia and hands over birthday presents and other goodies from home. Her grandchildren’s handprints are on the side of the truck, always with her. In the summers when school is out, the grandchildren, Ryelli and Korbyn Casper, sometimes ride with her, “asking a million questions,” Linda says, from their strapped-in positions atop the bunks. “A lot of truckers take their families on the road,” Linda says. Her daily companion is a small Jack Russell terrier named Jäger.

All the while, she is in constant communication with home and her dispatcher, brother Bob DeMunbrun who lives in Worland, Wyoming.

“We needed another set of hands and eyes,” says Becky, so it became a part-time job for him. He handles it around his work schedule.

Adds Linda: “He took to it like a duck to water.” He finds loads for her on an internet broker service, getloaded.com.

“Without cell phones and the internet, we couldn’t do it,” says Becky.

“The load has to start from where we want to be, or close,” says Linda. On the destination end, there has to be a lot of freight coming out of that area. In other words: no empty loads.

She has driven in 41-degree below zero weather in Fargo, ND, managing to keep the brakes and diesel fuel from freezing with advice from her brother. That feat was met with an unbelievable look from the guys at the weigh station. She was pulled into the station because the guy said: “I had to see the woman from North Carolina still rolling when all the other trucks shut down.”

In that kind of weather, the temperature inside the cab is 30 degrees. The heater can’t keep up when it’s that cold.

Linda has hauled everything from empty ice cream containers to money for the Denver mint and has driven in 45 states. She drives mostly at night, when she can make better time and avoid traffic. She is back in town as her schedule allows.

“I love life on the road,” Linda says. “I couldn’t imagine life any other way.”