18 Wheels of Justice Proudly Presents…
The Tale of Twin Lake Trucking
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Call Twin Lake today at 800-288-6165 and ask for Ed
One of the best kept secrets for drivers in the Memphis area is a quiet and stable trucking company in St. Louis, just across the Mississippi river from the Arch. Twin Lake Trucking has been in business for decades and has survived and become stronger through the boom and bust times that the trucking industry has seen throughout the years. Alan Sinn is the second generation of the Sinn family to take the reigns at Twin Lake. The company, founded by his father, the well respected Larry Sinn, has endured and prospered in the past 45 years.
Alan Sinn learned the ropes at Twin Lake from an early age. He began his career as an OTR driver at Twin Lake, later working in the shop, billing and then dispatch, Alan has learned the business the right way at Twin Lake. Never one to be afraid to get his hands dirty, he knows all the ins and outs of the business and what drivers experience on the road, and has helped transform Twin Lake into a true “Drivers company”. Larry and Alan Sinn are well known among Twin Lake drivers as being accessible and have always welcomed and treated them as part of the Twin Lake family. Both Larry and Alan still jump in trucks on occasion to this day to deliver loads for customers when needed.
Twin Lake operates 85 company owned power units and 150 trailers, this gives the company the stability you want, but also gives the company the small carrier flexibility needed to meet both customer and drivers needs.
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Call Twin Lake today at 800-288-6165 and ask for Ed
We were fortunate to catch up with Alan Sinn and ask him some questions about the company and find out more about Twin Lake’s operations.
Welcome Mr. Sinn... Twin Lake Trucking has been a fixture in the St. Louis area for many years. Can you give us a little about the history of Twin Lake?
My mother and Father started the business 45 years ago with 1 truck and grew from there. They leased trucks to a refrigerated carrier and grew to about 40 leased trucks at one time. They got their own authority in 1984; I came aboard in 1988 working to grow the Twin Lake division. We now have 70 trucks in the Twin Lake division and about 85 trucks total with over 150 trailers. We pull vans, temperature controlled, flatbeds, specialty flatbeds, and Intermodal trailers. My sister Tammy Elbe & I have been running the majority of the operation for several years now.
What a great story, it’s great to see the entire family and the second generation taking the reigns at Twin Lake Trucking. We hear a lot of good things from your current drivers. What do you see at Twin Lake that makes your company so attractive to company drivers?
We are very diverse. We have short/ local runs, long OTR runs as well as regional runs. Drivers can request short regional runs or long OTR runs. If a local driver wants to go on a long run occasionally we send them out to make them happy. Drivers can stay out or be home as often as they would like. About 50% of our freight is HAZMAT so if you have a HAZMAT endorsement you would have the best choice of loads. We pay extra for pulling HAZMAT loads and flatbed loads. We also pay 25% of the load when picking up partials. That can put an extra couple of hundred dollars a week in a drivers check.
Vans, Reefers, Flatbeds, Power Only. There's opportunity for just about every type of driver at Twin Lake. Can drivers with the necessary experience switch between different divisions?
Yes they can. Van & Reefer driver will swap back and forth all the time. If a driver has flatbed experience, that will open up another door of opportunity for them. Certain areas of the trucking business will have there ups and down times. Having different divisions allows me to move my drivers around to keep them busy.
We really like how your operation is set up, with St. Louis as a hub and the majority of your freight being out from and back to St. Louis. Are you looking for drivers just in the St. Louis area or are you hiring in other areas as well?
Most of the time that’s just what we try to do, send a driver out and reload him back to St Louis. We don't just bounce the drivers around the country without a plan. 70% of our drivers live within 50 miles of St. Louis, but we do hire drivers all over the Midwest. We have a small yard in Memphis, TN that we station about 10 trucks.
Thank you for taking the time to join us today, Alan and we enjoyed learning about the unique opportunities available at Twin Lake.
Company Drivers anywhere in the Midwest, Call Twin Lake Today to find out more!
Click above or Call Twin Lake today at 800-288-6165 and ask for Ed or fill out form below