‘Tis the season for gratitude! During this time of Thanksgiving, we reflect on another successful year. And there is so much to appreciate and be grateful for! While we have dozens of reasons to be thankful, we’re diving into the top 10. Join us as we reflect on exactly why we’re so grateful in 2021 to be the best freight brokerage in the country.
10. Thriving with our amazing team
Starting off bold, and we won’t apologize: We have the finest freight team in the nation! Our freight brokers share values like integrity, tenacity, hustle and heart. We’re thankful that freight agents come to Tallgrass Freight when they’re ready to leave amateur hour behind, and their results speak for themselves. As one of the fastest-growing companies in our region and the nation, we have our agents to thank. But one crucial ingredient to freight career success is a top-tier leadership and support team. Our back office crew is laser-focused on ensuring our agents are maximizing their potential and compensation. In 2021, we’ve expanded our team, and everyone in our TGF crew is exceptionally talented and poised to serve our freight agents with excellence. This is a team we are so grateful for, not only this year, but every year.
9. Paying our agents incredible compensation
Paychecks matter. Full stop. NO beating around the bush: money matters! Unlike other freight brokerages, which have overly complex or constantly changing compensation models, we narrow in on the resources designed to empower our agents towards succeed. We’re passionate about investing in our agents so they can earn what they deserve. While other freight companies went the furlough route in 2021, we kept hiring and hiring, and raising the bar on top compensation. We’re grateful to offer high splits, no salary caps and unmatched sales rewards allow agents to attain the lifestyle they have always dreamed about! The best.
8. Launching our new CRM
Cue the drumroll: we’re grateful to have launched the finest freight CRM in the nation this year! A vast majority of agent programs out there use off-the-shelf CRM systems. But at Tallgrass, we’re grateful to have a CRM that was built for freight agents, by freight agents. It helps our team of agents make more money and serve customers more efficiently! Building this freight CRM was a huge investment, and it’s already paying off by helping our agents earn more and work more efficiently. Our system is entirely homegrown, built with an incomparable understanding of what today’s freight brokers really need. Our main focus has been — and will continue to be — implementing technology changes designed to help our agents thrive. We’re thankful our CRM allows us to do just that.
7. Launching our What If? Program
Innovation is crucial — so crucial, in fact, that we’ve built a whole program with financial rewards for those with game-changing ideas. Our What if? Program takes our CRM to new heights and encourages agents to never stop asking that pivotal question: What if? In our quest to innovate and receive fresh perspectives, we’ve developed this exciting program for our team of freight agents to solve challenges like never before. For every great idea that comes to life, we pay $100. No limits, no caps! That’s how thankful we are for our team members’ voices: we’re willing to pay for it. You just can’t find this type of agent empowerment anywhere else!
6. Launching our Steering Committee
At Tallgrass, we believe in empowering diverse perspectives, and showing our agents just how grateful we are for their insights. We’ve witnessed first-hand how impactful our team of agents can be in an environment that values their voices and ideas. The best ideas can come from anyone and everyone in a company, not just the top employees! So in an effort to constantly be evolving and improving our freight agent program, we’ve launched our Steering Committee to help further feedback, innovation and creativity from our agents.
5. Welcoming a record number of agents into our rewards programs
At Tallgrass Freight, everything revolves around our people. And when our agents break records and hit big goals, we CELEBRATE! In 2021, we welcomed a record number of agents into our sales rewards programs. Agents in Club 200 (and their plus-one!) are rewarded with our annual, epic trip to Las Vegas! Agents in our Diamond Club take home incredible travel and flight rewards. And in 2021, we launched our most iconic club yet: agents in our Elite Circle are rewarded with a truly incredible, once-in-a-lifetime “bucket list” experience. The best freight agents deserve the best rewards. It’s just that simple!
4. Having fun at our summer Bounce House Bash
We love our freight agent community, and one of our favorite annual traditions is hosting our summer Bounce House Bash. This event gives us the opportunity to celebrate and connect with not only our fabulous agents, but their families too! The Bounce House Bash is just one part of our continuous efforts to build a company that supports our agents’ lifestyle. We’ve worked to build a company culture with a work hard, play hard mindset by ensuring a space that promotes the ideal work-life balance (something everyone can be thankful for!).
3. Hosting two amazing Roundtable events
We are grateful to provide an environment where our agents can grow their book of business through career development opportunities. That’s why we host our Agent Roundtable mastermind weekend twice a year, bringing promising talent to Kansas City for a weekend of training and growth. Our Roundtable includes priceless expert strategies from top financial planners and a panel of freight agents who share insights on how they grew their books of business. “No one else in the freight agent world is doing this, and we’re here to take better care of our agents than anyone else in the business,” says our COO and co-owner David Barnes.
2. Once again sweeping the awards
This year we are extremely thankful to receive key national and local awards celebrating both our outstanding growth and culture. While it’s far from our first award-winning year, we’re still just as grateful. We’ve worked hard to establish an industry-leading freight agent program that can’t be found anywhere else — and as a result, here are the incredible awards we have received this year:
- Inc. 5000 Series: America’s Top Businesses in the Midwest
- Inc. 5000
- Ingram’s Top 100
- Kansas City Business Journal Best Places to Work
- Kansas City Business Journal Fast 50
1. Being the BEST freight brokerage in the country
With the right people, who treat each other the right way, we’re confident in saying that we have built the BEST freight brokerage in the country here at Tallgrass! Although this accomplishment took more than just this year to achieve, we’re especially grateful to say that we’ve arrived.
Our mission and vision is ingrained in our company DNA. With a team who strives to diligently live out our values day in and day out, we owe much of this great success to them. Since day one, our vision has always been this: to build the best freight brokerage in the country. And we are so thankful to celebrate this milestone nearly ten years after opening our doors — we love being the BEST!
There is so much to be thankful for here at Tallgrass Freight, and these ten things only scratch the surface of all the good things that 2021 has brought us — and we expect 2022 to be even better! Join the best team of award-winning agents that continue to transform the future of the freight industry. Become part of our freight agent program today.
