Potter, Barbara

My name is Barbara Potter.  I am the CEO of T J Potter Trucking, Becker Warehouse & Reload and T J P Brokerage located in Becker, MN.  We have been in business for over 30 years.  We recently purchased Perkins Motor Transport located in Northfield, MN.  

I grew up in Maple Lake, MN.   I was very active in the community and graduated in 1978 from Maple Lake high school.  I played softball, volleyball and was in the marching band while working at the Maple Lake airport.   Some of my greatest memories growing up were getting crowned home coming queen in 1978.    I was in the top 10 of my class.   I soloed a Cessna 150 airplane.   I did 3 take offs and landings and had to go on a cross country with no one else in the plane landing at two different airports.   It was a great experience.  I married Todd Potter in 1981.   Todd and I graduated together.   I worked at Maple Lake bank for few years and also drove to the cities working in accounting.   Todd drove semi mainly hauling sod and lumber.    We decided to start a family.   We have 3 sons, Kyle was born in 1985, Derek in 1986 and Shane in 1988.  I stayed home with the boys and that is when we decided to grow the trucking and stay home with our sons.  Todd stayed trucking and we purchased a couple more trucks and drivers.     I did the books and enjoyed the boys.

We decided it was time to look for a building and shop to work on trucks and continue with the books.    We were told Becker had a great deal with land in the industrial park.   We approached the City of Becker about the land.    The City of Becker was amazing to work with.     A young couple who had trust in us borrowed us the money to build the building.  

We moved to Becker in the late eighties.   We continued to grow.   We out grew the building.   We moved a few blocks over in the industrial park to a 66000.00 square foot building.  We are still located at 13000 Sherburne Ave Becker, Mn.      

Kyle, Derek and Shane transferred to Becker school around 1990.  The Becker school district was a great place to raise our sons.   The boys were active in football, baseball, wrestling, track, band and choir. I was able to help coach as the boys were young in baseball allowing me to meet serval parents and great memories.

 We were also a member of the Becker catholic church where the boys went to religion on Wednesday nights and I taught religion for 5 years.  The boys graduated from Becker High School. 

The biggest highlight was watching the boys playing sports and going to the dome several years in a row.   The families and friends we met in Becker still continues on today.  We had prom pictures at our home with several families and the parents all came.  So many pictures and memories.    The boys all went on to college and continued to play football.

Shane was offered a Division 1 scholarship with the MN gophers.     

Outside of Becker our family moto crossed dirt bikes for several years as competition.

The boys were ranked in the top 3 most years.  We packed food and camped almost every weekend allowing a very close family.  

Kyle is now married to Kara Kline and have 3 amazing sons.  Emmitt who is 5.  Lincoln is 4 and Calvin is 1.   

Derek is married to Jenna Kruchten high school sweethearts.  Jenna graduated from Becker the same year as Derek.   They have a daughter Jaylyn who is 2 and a son Axel 11 months old.

Shane is married to Samantha Behr and have two sons.  Braxton is 2 and Knox is 4 months.

We all love spending time together.    Great family and friends.  We have been so blessed. 

T J Potter Trucking and Perkins Motor Transport operate very well together.   Todd and I own both companies.   Kyle, Derek and Shane all work for the company.    We operate over 100 trucks and own over 300 trailers.  We pride ourselves on personal customer service and we are committed to making the process of moving loads as simple and trouble-free as possible.   T J Potter trucking will gladly arrange the logistics for your most challenging loads throughout the United States and Canada.    Load quoting, planning, equipment requirements and driver selections are all done by our same core group of professionals. 

We also provide warehousing with full customer services at Becker Warehouse & Reload.  

Through years of dedication and hard work, it has grown into the established business it is today.      T J Potter Trucking is still centrally located in Becker, MN

T J Potter trucking has trailers from 5 -axles to 19-axles and can haul up to 180,000.00 pounds. 

The reason for purchasing Perkins Motor transport a few years ago is because Perkins can haul up to 800,000.00 pounds.   A big step for the Potter family.   We have a building of the same size in Northfield, Mn with the same number of employees.  

Becker Warehouse & Reload is a convenient storage in transit warehouse for our customers freight to save them space.   We specialize in unloading center beam and box cars directly off the BNSF rail line.  We now have 3 storage facilities located in the industrial park in Becker MN.  Two of the warehouses are 60,000.00 sq. feet in size.   One is smaller in size.   We offer warehousing, transloading and transportation services, so we can also manage your inventory and deliver it right to you or your customer.   

A family own company, we take great pride in providing a high standard of service to our customers and strive to always improve customer satisfaction in today’s competitive business environment. 

All of our companies are women owned.   I Barbara Potter the President of all the companies.   I received woman of the year for 2018.  I received the enterprising Women of the year Award in Miami, Florida.  I am certified WBE through the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, and is a member of the National Women’s Leadership Association, and the Becker Chamber of Commerce.   I was awarded for reaching over 26 million in annual revenue.

I also was featured in the Minnesota Business January 2017 Women Who Lead Magazine.

  Quote “It’s a challenging industry with every state having different requirements, with the fluctuating fuel prices, and with margins being low, mistakes are huge.   With that being said, do your homework, gain knowledge before you set out on your own.”

We have been a great part of the Becker community by hiring people from the community.   We donate to many of the school and church activities.   We also have donated to several benefits.     The sporting programs have been a big part of our donations along with Becker Robotics to several of the dance teams and church groups.        

We are so proud to be a part of the Becker community and want to say thank you for making this happen.