IronPlanet has always sold trucks. But until a couple years ago, many would-be truck buyers and sellers had no idea. Since its launch in 1999, IronPlanet had mostly been known for surplus construction equipment sales: Cranes, tractors, oil and mining equipment. Paul Blalock, IronPlanet’s Vice President of Sales, TruckPlanet, set out to add to IronPlanet’s reputation. “We wanted to let the buying audience and the selling audience know that we are squarely in the truck business,” he says.
To broadcast that loud and clear, in early spring of 2013, he and a team of experts launched a specialized site,TruckPlanet.com, focused solely on connecting IronPlanet’s truck fleet sellers with potential buyers.
It worked. At the first TruckPlanet sales event, a single-seller auction for Ryder System Inc. on May 7, 2013, the company sold 219 trucks and generated $2.8 million in one day. In the two years since TruckPlanet launched, the brand’s vehicle count has grown by 31% and its gross merchandising value has grown 43%. “We’ve had substantial growth,” says Blalock. “And we’re building our sales team. As of June 1st, we’ll have six national account managers for TruckPlanet. That’s the most we’ve ever had for our sales team. That’s something I’m excited about.”
It’s not surprising that Blalock’s vision took off the way it has. He has over 25 years of sales and executive experience in the transportation industry, and more powerfully yet, he’s been working to get transportation business onto the internet since the early days of e-commerce. “I had a couple of friends who had started dot-com ventures and done really well. They said, Paul, if there’s anything you can find that has not been web-enabled yet, it will be. Now’s your chance,” he says. “So I started thinking about transportation. And I came up with an idea for a company called Digital Freight.”
Within a few years, online transportation marketplace Digital Freight was acquired by Manugistics, and that’s where Blalock met Greg Owens and Jeff Jeter, now IronPlanet’s CEO and president, respectively. “Long story short,” Blalock recalls, “Greg became the CEO of IronPlanet. About seven years ago, I was sitting in my office and the phone rang, and it was Greg. And Greg said, “I want you to come handle sales for me.”
When he joined IronPlanet, Blalock was focused on agricultural equipment sales. But Owens, Jeter and Blalock soon realized IronPlanet was missing a key opportunity around trucks. “The way buyers and sellers transact large fleets, it’s a very mature market,” he says.
It’s critical that a truck-focused marketplace understand that market. “There are only four truck manufacturers. But there are a lot of different specs you can choose from in a truck. If you’re buying a piece of construction equipment, it typically only comes with one type of engine and one type of transmission. On a truck, there are thousands of options to understand. Buyers are very conscious of what type of engine and what type of transmission they have on these trucks, and they’ll either buy or not buy according to what’s on that truck available for sale.”
Fortunately, IronPlanet already had a system in place to ensure that buyers get every detail about assets for sale ahead of time, and to reassure them that the equipment condition listed in inspection reports is trustworthy. IronClad Assurance®, a patented inspection program, means that IronPlanet stands behind their inspection reports 100%. If there are disputes, the company promises to resolve it satisfactorily.
TruckPlanet uses the IronClad Assurance® program just like IronPlanet.com. And IronPlanet has another benefit going for them, allequip.com, which is a “buy-it-now” model in addition to more traditional auction models for surplus equipment. “On a late-model, Class 8 truck with low mileage, you’re talking upwards of a $60,000 vehicle or more. The price point gets up there pretty quickly. What we find in the marketplace today is that a lot of sellers are reluctant to put those types of trucks into an unreserved auction. So we have a model where a seller can set a reserve price, and another model where buyers can purchase trucks right away without going into an auction. This means they can buy multiples much more easily, if they’re replenishing a fleet.”
“Our approach is not your standard one-size-fits-all. We’re more than an auction company,” Blalock says. “There are so many small little auction companies out there, and I think sellers get inundated with “auction, auction, auction,” all day long. But our national account managers can consult with you on the best way to remarket your trucks. Our services are so much more than an auction here.”
TruckPlanet’s many healthy and growing partnerships with highly visible Fortune 500 companies and truck manufacturers to remarket their fleet trucks show that IronPlanet’s instincts and deep market research did not lead them astray. TruckPlanet is a success story, and it’s only growing stronger and more able to serve both buyers and sellers with a continued commitment to excellence in the complex world of all classes of trucks.
