DIY leadership skillbuilding: Legacy repair leader leans on shop smarts, not classroom, to scale

Great leaders know how to delegate. But when it comes to building up your own managerial skillset, as the old saying goes, “If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.”

No one else is going to care more about which rung of the ladder you end up on, or how fast you get there. Both are dependent on how much effort you’re willing to put into career development and unlocking your leadership potential.

Keeping with that spirit, we are focusing on several leaders in the fleet maintenance sector who have climbed up to the C-suite by pulling on their own bootstraps and using methods available to everyone. 

Vincent Myles, President
Myles Truck Repair, Myles Wrecker Service, & Big Rig Body Shop

Vincent Myles was always destined to do something in the trucking industry. His great-great-grandfather ran one of the first truck repair shops in Brooklyn, converting his horse and buggy business to service the mechanized contraptions at the turn of the 20th century. Every generation since has been involved in trucking.

As a child, Myles joined his trucker father on furniture deliveries for Rooms to Go, even helping offload chairs. After high school, he gave college a try, but it didn’t compare to the family trade.

“It wasn’t my jam to sit in a class and listen to lectures,” he recalled. “I always watched my dad hustle. He was always doing something with trucks, or buying and selling Jeeps, or fixing stuff. That’s how he supported our family.”

His professors were not nearly as inspiring, so he joined his dad’s new truck repair business in the Atlanta area in 2012. His brother had an accounting degree and handled that side of the business. (Myles acknowledges even hustlers need a “numbers guy.”)
Myles wasn’t even 21, and he admits that at first it was just a 9-to-5; he didn’t really have a stake in growing the business, let alone leading it.

But that changed a few years in. The shop noticed customers complaining about wreckers’ services, stranding them. He saw how much the tow company was billing and thought, “We could do this.” The shop bought a Peterbilt 379 with a detached tow unit and was almost ready.

There was one small snag.

“I had no clue that I was doing,” the 33-year-old laughed. “I bought it and said, ‘Now what?’”

First, Myles put in the work to get his CDL, then, being a digital native, figured out the rest by watching YouTube videos. Facebook also proved a reliable resource for towing full tractor-trailers. One page taught him how to configure the wrecker brake lines so that when it stopped, the trailer brakes would too.

Taking the initiative on building out this business “spurred my entrepreneur spirit,” he said.

You’d think Myles would say his dad was his best teacher, but “you get the biggest lessons from the customers,” he said. “They’ll tell you how they feel.” He also advised treating the relationship with fleets as a partnership and not a transaction.

Learning that lesson spurred the creation of the body shop. He’d hear customers complain about long wait times at their current providers, and he saw the prices his subcontractors charged, so again he thought, “Why not do it ourselves?” Given his past success with social media, he found the facility on Facebook Marketplace and turned it into a commercial collision shop, adding in a cross draft paint booth.

Last December, the Myles family took partnerships to a new level by joining True North Fleet Services, a new private-equity backed platform that aggregates smaller fleet repair businesses to gain economies of scale, such as “supercharged” health benefits for employees, and foster collaboration with industry experts. The Myles yielded ownership, but retain their identity and gain equity in the parent company.

“Not only do I have equity, but the education that I’m getting from these people is something I could never have gotten without getting in the room with these guys,” he said. Basically, he gets graduate-level insights without the debilitating student loans.

“It’s not a corporate raider strip-and-gut, try-to-sell-everything-off [deal],” Myles insisted. He sees it as highly experienced industry experts teaching each other their best practices and handling the soft skill matters that smaller businesses can’t perfect on their own.

For example, a head of recruiting at the corporate level oversees the tech hiring process—a major pain point for the repair industry. One new workflow is giving potential candidates a video exam prior to the interview. Another is monitoring tech efficiency and providing strategies to upskill those falling behind rather than firing them.

And though Myles never cared for classrooms, the shop doesn’t skimp on training. He noted that the aftermarket dealers, such as FleetPride and NAPA, provide classes, as does Hunter for its alignment systems. This month, they are also bringing in a trainer to go over high-rail system maintenance.

The adherence to continuous education has paid off in developing more leaders. The current VP started as the shop cleaner in 2015, and the general manager came out of the Marine Corps and into the shop as a tech in 2013.

“A lot of their and my path was getting the opportunity and taking the risk,” Myles offered.

There’s just one final snag. He can’t stop learning.

“I never stop thinking about it,” he finished. “How do I make this better? What should we have done here? How do we tweak this?”