This fireside chat recap is from Day 1 of FreightWaves’ F3: Future of Freight Festival live event in Chattanooga, Tennessee. For more information on the event, click here.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Ending noncompetes within our space and our trajectory
DETAILS: Founded in 2012, Steam Logistics, headquartered in Chattanooga, has grown to include nearly 900 employees working in 10 offices across the U.S. Jason Provonsha, CEO of Steam, estimates the company will have revenue of around $1.1 billion in 2023, up from revenue of $33 million in 2019. Because of its aggressive hiring strategy, the 3PL plans to move into its newly revamped 60,000-square-foot building in downtown Chattanooga.
Steam Logistics is seeking to end noncompetes in the freight industry. So far, more than 100 3PLs have signed the pledge on endnoncompetes.com.
SPEAKER: Jason Provonsha, CEO of Steam Logistics
BIO: Prior to joining Steam Logistics in 2015, Provonsha headed the corporate sales function at Access America Transport, a $500 million domestic freight brokerage that merged with Coyote Logistics in 2014.
SPEAKER: Steve Cox, president of Steam Logistics
Prior to joining Steam Logistics nine years ago, Cox was executive vice president of Minnesota-based Access America Transport for over seven years.
KEY QUOTES FROM PROVONSHA:
“As much as we’re against noncompetes, we have no issue with nonsolicitation agreements.”
“It’s been kind of nice to sort of lock arms with even our competitors. It’s almost an indefensible position [noncompetes], which is why nobody has a rational argument [against dropping them].”
“We were hoping that more of the larger legacy 3PLs would jump on this. So far we haven’t seen that. We’ve had a couple of people reach out and ask questions and express some curiosity about it. But we haven’t had any of the top 20 3PLs jump into the fray.”
KEY QUOTES FROM COX:
“We kind of got sick of getting letters from other companies [about noncompetes] to be honest, and we just didn’t really believe in the practice.”
“We know there’s a lot of 22-year-old kids out there starting at their first job. They’re signing the employee handbook and I can guarantee that the company isn’t giving them a training lesson on noncompetes.”
“I think one of the most interesting things that we’ve seen so far is that customers don’t like it [noncompetes]. We’ve had tons of shippers, customers tell us how happy they are that we’re leading the charge on this issue.”
