All this month we’re celebrating Black History Month by showcasing Black-owned transportation businesses and highlighting the work of Black transportation professionals. Tawana Randall, our newest Black History Month honoree, is the owner and founder of metro Atlanta-based carrier consultancy business Gold Star Logistics Group. Gold Star Logistics Group provides freight dispatching, dispatch training, compliance, back office, and mentoring services to owner operators and smaller carriers. When we recently spoke with Randall, she shared the details of her own entrepreneurial journey in logistics and the keys to her success in the industry. Get ready to be inspired!
How Randall Got Her Start in Transportation
“I started about maybe seven years ago in the transportation industry,” Randall shared. “I kind of jumped in the industry backwards because I purchased a vehicle first with little to no education about the industry. We failed the first time around but coming back into the industry I wanted to do it the right way. I started with dispatching and learned my way from the ground up. At first, we were only dispatching one or two vehicles, but since then we’ve grown to dispatching for over 40 vehicles.”
About Gold Star Logistics Group
“We’ve transitioned from being just a freight dispatch company to also being a transportation compliance company,” Randall shared. “We handle all the compliance for all of our drivers offering quarterly IFTA filing, IRP, 2290 and full business set up, as well as serving as a third-party administrator (T.P.A.) consortium. If you’re not familiar, the F.M.C.S.A. requires all drivers to pass drug screenings. As a T.P.A. consortium, we arrange their screenings for their drug tests. We teach freight dispatch classes as well.”
What Randall Likes Most About Her Work
“I really enjoy helping people,” Randall shared. “Once we got our company situated, it became more about allowing other women to come into the industry and getting them involved the right way. In the supply chain industry, there aren’t that many African American females. My goal was and is to get out there and teach females about the supply chain industry and all the ways they can get into the business. A lot of women are interested in supply chain as a field, but they don’t know how to get into it. For me, my passion is my teaching. I love helping and guiding women, giving them the resources they need to be successful in this industry.”
Challenges and Victories as a Small Transportation Business
“One of the challenges at the beginning was the fact that transportation is so male dominated,” Randall said. “It took some time to gain that respect from my male counterparts. Also, for a lot of us in this industry the financial aspects are challenging when you want to grow, hire more people and expand your business when you don’t have that capital to grow. Another challenge is just the up and down nature of transportation. Helping people along the way and networking with others in this industry are some of the victories for me. Getting out there to the chamber meetings, educating others, and being able to work with companies like OTR Capital, Trans FX, FreightWaves and Trucker Tools are highlights. I’m also going to be teaching continuing education courses at Clayton State University, which I’m excited about. I’ve met so many amazing people in this industry and a lot of them have been women. I love being able to walk into a room and see women getting out there and doing the same things I’m doing. It lets me know that I’m not alone when it comes to the challenges.”
To learn more about Tawana Randall and Gold Star Logistics Group, visit https://www.goldstarlogisticsgroup.com.
Don’t miss “Celebrating Black History Month: Rahmel Wattley, C.E.O and Founder of Truck N’ Hustle.”
