Insuring for the long haul
A family business
For Bruce Daniel, running a successful trucking company isn’t just about a healthy bottom line. It’s about family and community. Investing in both today to help ensure a promising tomorrow.
Huff and Puff Trucking began in 1983, working with agricultural operations in the greater middle Tennessee region. Over time, they’ve grown into a flatbed carrier with about 100 trucks serving customers in 48 states and Canada.
This is very much a family business. Bruce oversees it with his wife, Melody, and their three sons—T.J., B.J. and A.J.—who hold leadership roles in logistics, marketing, and maintenance. Then there are the employees, who Bruce also treats like family.
Bruce says having good employees is the heart and soul of his business.
“It's about all these people and all the hard work they do. The phone calls in the middle of the night and the breakdowns and taking care of the customer service and the customer,” said Bruce. “We pride ourselves on doing quality work. We're not interested in being the biggest, but we are interested in being the best.”
A culture of safety
To be the best, Huff and Puff focuses on safety, training, and putting skilled professionals behind the wheel. And they align themselves with an insurance carrier who shares those priorities.
Sentry has provided insurance coverage for Huff and Puff for the past 10 years. During that time, Bruce and team have revamped their driver training program with a focus on efficiency and safety. Calling it Huff and Puff University, Bruce says it goes above and beyond other driver programs to add skilled professional drivers to their team.
“We do our best to get the right employees in the driver’s seat,” Bruce said. “And when we do have claims, we know that the longer a claim sits unresolved, the more expensive it gets. We rely on Sentry and their expertise to get our claims resolved and, at the end of the day, get these trucks back out on the road.”
Building for the future
Although the daily operations of a trucking company occupy much of Bruce’s time, he keeps an eye on the future when his sons eventually will lead the company. He said it’s important to him to nurture long-term relationships with businesses like Sentry, who’ll offer continued insight and support down the road.
“We’ve got to have somebody to depend on that will be there when we need them,” said Bruce. “This is not just about me—it's all the families that are represented here in this company. They depend on the company to take care of them. And if things go wrong, you’ve got to have somebody in your corner who will go to bat for you."
