The bay door to the soon-to-be-former warehouse space/headquarters of Overdrive 2022 3-10-truck Small Fleet Champ CAP Trucking.
It was nigh on the end of an era for CAP Trucking, Overdrive's 2022 Small Fleet Champ in the 3-10-truck division, at the end of February earlier this year. Owner Chris Porricelli had been headquartered at the location you see above since 2011. The bay door opens on a warehouse space for parts storage, an electric pallet jack for moving freight in and out of and repositioning multi-temp refrigerated trailers, a small table set up for a desk Porricelli was using less and less in favor of a home office for himself and, occasionally, his dispatcher and fuel-tax preparer, Desiree.
"Guys leave their bills for whatever freight they leave in the warehouse here," he said, pointing to a small stack of papers. "I’ve been going through all the parts in here knowing we’re kind of moving out."
Porricelli, who turned 36 in February, was laying the groundwork for a combination of his five-truck fleet with around 30-truck JT Carriers in Sorrento, Florida.
Said JT Carriers Owner and President Seth Keck, "I think Chris was looking for growth" in business generally, "and JT was there to help. In essence we came together to try to merge." Opportunities Keck sees with Porricelli and the CAP operation on board include possible expansion of JT's current 45,000-square-foot facility with 10,000 feet of cold storage, a "true LTL facility," likewise its freight brokerage, given Porricelli's long work with a core of independent owner-operators.
Porricelli is likely to bring plenty new collaborative avenues for "inbound freight," Keck added, "some cross-dock avenues" to new business, and more.
It's no doubt an exciting time for Porricelli, and as noted in this story, published last week with Overdrive's announcement of the 2023 entry period for carriers in the Small Fleet Championship, Porricelli's enjoying new opportunities for support, growth and more.
Small fleets with authority and operating between 3 and 30 trucks throughout 2022 can enter this year's competition via this link.
When it comes to managing the day to day, Porricelli hopes he can be a safety valve for Keck, and vice versa. Keck feels Porricelli will be a big asset to JT Carriers' brokerage, as noted, with direct LTL business.
Maybe, just maybe, Porricelli adds, the hectic nature of running any small fleet business can be just a little less so for both men.
"Take some of the weight off our shoulders when needed," he said, "enjoy life a little more."
New beginnings for CAP Trucking
Porricelli leaves behind a decade-and-more legacy at the near-century-old place of business in Sanford, Florida. It was once the Sanford Farmer's Market, and "used to be state-owned," Porricelli said. "In the 80s and 90s this place was bumping with produce."
CAP rented from the state initially there for a cool $75 a month for the approximately 750 square feet of warehouse space. The old farmer's market, now in private hands, also houses the local food-service delivery operation of the Sanwa Food Group in addition to CAP. Several local owner-operators pay to park in the big lot as well.
A historical marker out front of the old market's main entrance says the place was the fist state-owned market of its kind in the entire nation when it opened in the 1930s. Stalls were offered for 50 cents/day, $3/week or $10 monthly.
Three of those newer trailers are pictured here, sitting left of a non-CAP rig staged at the Sanford location late February this year.
[Related: 'It came with work': CAP Trucking's flagship 2003 Peterbilt 379]
Recent moves follow a tough trucking year in 2022, but a joyous one for Porricelli -- he and his wife, Lauren, closed the deal just over a year ago in Spring with a wedding in their backyard.
Lauren and Chris Porricelli, pictured at the 2022 conference of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies with the Small Fleet Champ title belt
At their house, 15-20 minutes from the JT facility in Sorrento, the father and mother live with their young child, Chris's former ridealong dog JoJo, a two-bay garage/shop built within the last year to house Chris's personal '03 Pete and much more besides.
On the wall in his home office (which he's occasionally shared with his dispatcher) hangs this artist's rendering of CAP Trucking's former flagship 2015 Peterbilt 389, tragically stolen and never recovered in 2021. Porricelli told that story and big shifts around security he made thereafter at this link.
In the garage attached to the main house, among personal toys is this well-preserved vintage Cadillac DeVille, purchased by Chris and his father, Ciro Porricelli, some years back, complete with the factory-installed CB still in it.
"I don’t get to go out as much as I like," Porricelli said of these two Harleys, including the "first new bike I ever bought," a 2009 picked up during the auto-industry bailouts of that time. The other is a 2012 model he purchased from a private party in 2014.
With any luck, the Chris and Lauren might enjoy those toys more as the merger with JT Carriers solidifies.
Seth Keck has built "a beautiful business that’s well established," Porricelli said. "It has its own shop and mechanics, warehouse personnel, docks, office staff, dispatchers, billing," and more. "As they should, for the quantity and volume they produce."
Porricell met owner Seth Keck around 8-9 years ago, he said. JT Carriers was founded by Keck in 2006, alongside his father's long-running Jack's Tropicals nursery.
"Seth started a trucking business that encompassed a lot of nursery," Porricelli said. "He consolidated freight" from nurseries around the region, trucked it out. When Porricelli met him he had "maybe 15-20 trucks and he started buying a lot each year and grew from there." At one point he "got close to 40 trucks, then dialed it back to 30, with a few in-state trucks and the rest over-the-road." Like CAP's rigs, "the fleet is all gliders, all very good-looking" with variations in paint scheme and some with plenty more custom work put in. Keck's "been known to run a very keen operation."
JT Carriers was in a smaller location not far from their current one when Porricelli and Keck first met, but quickly outgrew it.
On-hand at the JT Carriers shop in late February, this CAP Trucking 2019 flattop Peterbilt 389 awaited service -- diagnosing and repairing an electrical gremlin Porricelli, maintenance personnel and the truck's driver gathered intel to pinpoint.
With the addition of CAP's trucks, Keck puts the fleet at 35 power units today.
Porricelli doesn't remember exactly "how I met Seth," but he recalls a time he was "starting to get into some plant hauling" himself and "needed decking supplies for the trailer. I wound up purchasing some from him."
Keck recalls, too, "I did try to get him into the plants for a while."
Over the years, the pair had drivers and former drivers employed in common, and "add in social media and being very close geographically," Porricelli said, "we kept it cordial" and would "run each other a handful of times through the year and that was it."
Today, it's safe to say Keck's got a solid partner in Small Fleet Champ Porricelli, and vice versa. Here's wishing the best to both as they move forward in a difficult time for trucking, generally.
Together, Keck said, "the direction we’re going is trying to broaden our horizons, and see if there are different avenues we can target."
To date, Porricelli said, outside of drivers, leased owners and the independents he works with regularly, "I’m pretty much a two-man show, with me doing the majority -- Desiree with dispatch and fuel taxes."
With JT Carriers, "It will be nice to have some extra hands in the mix," he said.
Enter your fleet to compete in Overdrive's 2023 Small Fleet Championship via this link.
Compete with the best for Overdrive's 2023 Small Fleet Champ awards
Do you have what it takes? Enter Overdrive's 2023 Small Fleet Champ competition to put your small trucking company in the running to claim the vaunted title belt. Fleets with authority operating 3 to 30 trucks through 2022 year-end are eligible.
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