10-4 Magazine June 2024

Cover Feature: By Daniel J. Linss he star ted migrating into the office, where he assumed dispatching and training duties, along with whatever else needed to be done, because that’s what you do in a small family operation. The company, which has been based in and around Grayslake, IL for its entire existence, is currently going through a changing of the guard, as Grandpa Larry and Grandma Sue (AKA “The Warden”) are preparing to retire. Travis and his wife Chloe are being groomed and trained to assume control of the company over the next five or so years. Servicing a 150-air-mile radius around Grayslake, they have over 1,100 gas stations on their “keep fill” plan. This plan, with probes in the ground at all of these locations, sends Travis a repor t at the top of every hour informing him of the levels of product at each location. Once a predetermined threshold is reached, the company automatically dispatches a truck to fill their tanks. It is a pretty sophisticated and complicated system, since many factors can come into play, such as a Cub’s baseball game increasing traffic and demand downtown or many other factors, which always keeps Travis on his toes, making sure all the stations get what they need when they need it. All of their fleet is red, and most of them are Peterbilt trucks. However, during the covid pandemic, when Peterbilts were hard (if not impossible) to get, they turned to the only trucks they could get, which were Macks, so much of their fleet are now Mack Pinnacle trucks. But these trucks are still traditionally styled trucks, with square hoods, that have a pretty classic look, for sure. Their trailers were exclusively Heil tankers for years, but after EnTrans International acquired both Heil and Polar, now their fleet is a mixture of these two brands, which are built side-by-side in the same factory and are vir tually the same besides the nameplate. In the past few years, they also star ted buying MAC trailers, and now have about ten of them. In 2016, Travis decided that he wanted to build a show-wor thy truck and, with his own Hauling fuel is a unique and demanding job, but some have mastered the craft. Sancken Trucking has been in business since 1977, and currently moves about 20 million gallons of product a day in and around the Chicagoland area. But what sets them apar t is their unrivaled service to their customers, their unwavering commitment to treat their employees like family, and their amazing trucks. Case in point, the special combination built to celebrate their 45th anniversary seen here. Granted, all their trucks aren’t as fancy as this one, but they all live up to the company motto, which is, “We Put the Class in Gas!” And after meeting third generation owner Travis Sancken and spending some time with him and his wife, they seem like pretty classy folks. In 1976, Larry Sancken (Travis Sancken’s grandfather) star ted driving for Graham Oil in Vernon Hills, IL. At the time, they were a new outfit with about five gas stations and two trucks to service them – Larry drove one of those two trucks and a Graham family member drove the other one. About a year later, as Graham Oil was growing quickly, they decided they no longer wanted the liability and responsibility of owning trucks and hauling their fuel products, so Larry, with help from the company, purchased the two B-model Mack trucks that Graham Oil owned, and began hauling their products in 1977 – and Sancken Trucking was officially born. Today, still hauling for Graham Enterprises (GEI) who have grown tremendously, along with many other clients, Larry (72) still drives, along with his son Jim (54) and his grandson Travis (29). With about 35 company owned trucks, over 70 company owned tanker trailers, and some 25-30 dedicated owner operators pulling many of those trailers, the company, based in Grayslake, Illinois, is now three generations deep, runs 24/7, and has around 80 employees. And, as mentioned before, currently hauls about 20 million gallons of product per day. That is quite an amazing success story! Like many out there, Larry’s son Jim began driving as soon as he could at 18 years old. His wife, Katie, later worked in the office, as well. Growing up in this environment, Travis star ted backing semis into the shop as young as eight years old and learned early on about keeping the trucks clean and maintaining them. Sancken Trucking employed a mechanic who was from Maine named Steve (AKA “Lobster”) from the beginning up until just a year or two ago, and Travis learned a lot from him. Of course, like so many others, his parents did not want him to be a truck driver, so after Travis graduated from high school in 2011, they sent him to the local community college to study business. Completing a three-year study program in Business Management in just 1.5 years (he hated school), Travis then star ted driving. But since he wasn’t 21 yet, he couldn’t get his Haz Mat endorsement to haul fuel, so he pulled hopper trailers with ag products for some of the local farmers instead, until he turned 21. After turning 21 and getting his Haz Mat license, he began working for the family company, and drove full-time for the next five years. At that point, 10 10-4 Magazine / June 2024 PUTTING THE CLASS IN GAS!