For the second consecutive year, we’re honoring female leaders in transportation throughout the month of March in celebration of Women’s History Month. In this second blog in this year’s blog series, you’ll have the pleasure of meeting Lashanta and Lateasha Witherspoon, co-owners and co-founders of LLG Transportation Consultants, a Dallas-based trucking consultancy business. The sisters founded LLG in 2019 and through the business provide owner operators and carriers with training and education on setting up efficient back end office operations, regulatory compliance, dispatching, branding and marketing, accounting and more. The two Ls in LLG stand for Lashanta and Lateasha, while the G in the company’s name stands for Gregory, their brother who passed away from childhood cancer. We recently spoke with Lateasha and Lashanta to learn more about what inspired the sisters to found LLG Transportation Consultants and about the services the company provides to the industry.
LLG Transportation Consultants: A Family Business
“LLG is a family business,” Lateasha said. “Our father has been in the industry for over 30 years, running under his own authority as an owner operator for close to 20 years now. We got exposure to the industry through him and growing up, we went with him in the truck during summer months. That’s how we began to learn about trucking. Most of our adult lives, we had nothing to do with trucking and we were not interested in it. He was always telling us to our CDLs, but we knew we didn’t want to drive trucks. Fast forward to 2017 and we had some family members who were starting their trucking companies and running their trucking companies and we saw that they were struggling with paperwork and other things. We decided to just help them out to make some extra money. Once Lashanta and I started assisting them, we realized that there are a ton of small carriers who actually have the same problems. We began to reach out to classmates who were in the industry and other people in the industry with surveys to find out what the hardest part is about owning a trucking company. That’s when we found out that a lot of people struggle with the rules and regulations, the back office support of making sure that they have everything that they need.”
The sisters’ backgrounds and educational degrees have helped shape the services that they offer through LLG. Prior to founding LLG, Lateasha worked in the construction and logistics industries and also spent some time teaching secondary ed. Lashanta has an MBA and has spent most of her career working in accounting, finance and banking. The Witherspoons started their business in January of 2019 but didn’t begin offering a full suite of services until November 2020. According to Lashanta, during that timeframe, the sisters educated themselves and conducted research on the different aspects of running successful owner operator and carrier businesses. When LLG did open its doors in 2020, the Witherspoons immediately started getting inquiries from owner operators and trucking companies looking for assistance.
One-Stop Shop for Owner Operators and Trucking Companies
The sisters view LLG Transportation Consultants as a one-stop shop for trucking companies and owner operators. LLG’s services aren’t just for those who are new to the industry. The company also provides education and support to experienced owner ops and carriers. LLG can help you get your USDOT and MC numbers, with licensing, and help you maintain proper compliance with federal and state trucking regulations. LLG offers startup services, preemployment services, drug and alcohol clearinghouse testing, consortium enrollment, TWIC card registration and application assistance, driver trainings and orientations, IFTA consolidation, ELD training, accident readiness kits and more. The company maintains a vetted referral network of dispatch, factoring and insurance providers, as well.
LLG’s LLG University is a platform that offers trainings and individual courses on IFTA quarterly filings, biennial updates and authority applications, as well as full courses on everything from back office support and compliance to freight dispatching. These training courses provide step by step instructions and guidance through each process. Through LLG University, you can learn at your own pace and gain access to a wealth of industry knowledge.
“The more that we do this, the more I realize what an impact we are having on our people,” said Lashanta. “Being able to educate them and seeing them apply what we’re educating them on, the stories that we get, the reviews that we receive — it makes it all worth it. In the end, it makes you feel like you’re serving your purpose. I’m making an impact on hundreds and thousands of people that I may not even know. To get that feedback from our clients, knowing that what we’re providing and what we’re delivering is accepted and that they have a safe place to be able to come to and ask questions means more to me than anything in the world.”
Lateasha agreed, saying that she loves everything about trucking and that it never feels like work for her.
“Yesterday, we were working from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. with coaching sessions and different things,” said Lateasha. “Even though I may be tired at the end of the day, I feel accomplished. I’m almost on a high because I have poured into people and I see that they’re taking it and they’re applying it. We have people that have literally just known us within the last six or seven months and we’ve seen the seeds that we’ve planted in them have grown into great fruit. We just had that experience in Houston this past week and that’s the most enjoyable part. When you get that text message saying, ‘Hey, I just got my first load’ or you get a picture with a message saying, ‘Hey, I just picked up my truck and everything is going well’ that makes it worth it and gives us the energy that we need to continue.”
Financial Literacy Through LLG Every Penny Accounts
Lashanta and Lateasha also offer accounting and financial services to their clients through their secondary business, LLG Every Penny Accounts. According to Lashanta, who provides the support, the goal is to bring financial literacy and awareness to people in the trucking industry and to small business owners in general.
“What I specialize in is helping small businesses build their business credit, as well as tax savings and financial strategies” said Lashanta. “I want to be able to bring that awareness to people. That’s how we’re able to come together. I offer the financial consultant side of it and we have the logistics and trucking side, as well. We also will be offering financial consulting for individuals, where we put together a plan to help them strategize and build their businesses, help them leverage capital within their businesses and spread that to others.”
To learn more about LLG Transportation Consultants, visit https://llgtrucking.com.
Read the first blog in this series, “Female Leaders in Transportation: Driver and Industry Advocate Ingrid Brown.”
