LEADERSHIP
Gerardo Amit
Aceves Dhugga by Jeff Wilser
President ( Dhugga ) and CEO ( Aceves ) Platinum Express
How do you become a trucking mogul ? For Gerardo Aceves and Amit Dhugga , when they were both just 23 years old , in 2015 , they bought their first truck — the cheapest they could find — on a credit card . It broke down on their first job . Their cargo was a load of watermelons in the hot California summer , and their client angrily told them , “ You guys are going to be delivering watermelon stew . We don ’ t want watermelon stew !”
Flash forward six years . Their Yuba City-based company Platinum Express , with a fleet of 100 trucks , now hauls lumber , beer , paper , chemicals , dog food , and products that range from toothpaste to sofas across 11 Western states , stocking the shelves of stores like Costco and Target . With stated annual revenue topping $ 20 million , they plan to double their fleet by the end of 2022 . “ We didn ’ t want to build a company , we wanted to build an empire ,” Dhugga says .
Both of these friends , now 30 , grew up in the Capital Region and have immigrant roots . After moving from India , Dhugga ’ s father owned restaurants and grocery stores , so the logical move would be for the son to join the family business . Or maybe not . “ I didn ’ t want to be known as the kid who worked for his dad ,” Dhugga says . “ I wanted to do something on my own .” He first studied biology , then pharmacy , then law before catching the entrepreneurial bug . He even knocked out his law degree from the John F . Kennedy College of Law while co-running Platinum Express , which might make him the only lawyer-turned-truckingcompany owner on the planet .
Aceves ’ parents moved from Mexico to Sacramento in the 1980s and worked on a farm . Aceves says that since he was 5 years old , he had an ambition to “ make so much money and do something ,” and this drove him to take classes at Yuba College while still in high school , to flip some quick sales on eBay ( like jewelry and cell phone parts ), and to launch a cell phone company when he was 16 .
Neither one of them had ever driven a truck ( unheard of in this industry ), which led them to ask a ton of questions , consult with smart experts ( they ’ re proud of hiring top drivers ) and introduce innovation — such as digitizing the truck scheduling and operations , much of which used to be done on paper or white boards .
And they relentlessly focused on growth . The average company has “ five or 10 trucks ,” says Aceves , but as soon as they could they leased 10 trucks , then 20 , then 30 . This let them scale and entice bigger clients , which provided capital to buy their own trucks , which attracted even bigger clients , which soon yielded more trucks and then more clients . They hired aggressively . “ Most people would have 40 percent less staff ,” says Aceves . The company ’ s larger staff gives the luxury to quickly scale and ensure quality control and on-time deliveries . Gone are the days of “ watermelon stew .”
They started the business to make money — mission accomplished — but they ’ ve developed a deep pride for the role of trucking . Especially during COVID . In the pandemic ’ s darkest days , the trucks of Platinum Express delivered face masks , disinfectants , respirators , hand sanitizers and scrubs . “ Even when everything is shut down , the truck drivers are working hard ,” says Aceves . Or as Dhugga sees it , whenever you walk into a store and look at the items on the shelf , 99 percent of the time , they arrived on a truck . The trucking industry “ keeps all the industries afloat ,” Dhugga says . “ It keeps America moving .”
MURAL BY DAVID PUCK ; STOOL DESIGN BY TRENT DEAN
40 comstocksmag . com | July 2021