Unlikely duo works to grow transportation company

Dool Salat (left) and Ben Warne have worked together to start Reliant Transportation, a non-emergency medical transportation company serving the seven-county area. (Photo: Jason Wachter, [email protected] PHOTOS)

By Kevin Allenspach
Sunday, December 21, 2014

advertisements

Synergy can happen in business when two people work together and the result is greater than if either had the same plans on their own.

It happens in many circumstances, but it's rare — if not unique — in Central Minnesota in the case of Reliant Transportation.

The principals in the company include Dool Salat, who came to the United States from Somalia in 2007, and Ben Warne, who grew up in Perham and is working toward an accounting degree at St. Cloud State University.

Their backgrounds are seemingly a world apart. Yet, since the two have joined forces, their enterprise has been growing and they've added several contracts for non-emergency medical transportation this year. Their staff has grown to five, and they use 30 independent contractors to deliver clients to various appointments.

"We're capable of more than 100 rides a day," said Salat, 32, who started Reliant Transportation by himself in 2010. "But I don't see us as being limited. Now that we've gotten together, we have the ability to expand and we're looking at that. With the areas around Minnesota we're looking at, our goal is to someday soon have a couple thousand per day."

A map of the state of Minnesota is on one wall of their headquarters at 600-25th Ave. S in St. Cloud. The map has circles drawn around potential expansion sites.

They can trace the growth back to a chance meeting a couple of years ago when they lived at Grand River Estates.

"I was with a group of my friends playing pool and Dool was with a group of his friends eating pizza and they got to playing with us, too," said Warne, whose father, Darrell, also became a partner in the company when it reorganized last January. "We got to know each other and kind of hit it off."

Warne used his accounting background to help Salat figure out some payroll and compliance issues.

But they were still just friends until last year, when Salat wanted to take a three-month vacation to return to Africa. Who did he ask to run operations in his absence? None other than Ben Warne.

"When I came back and saw the excellent job he did, we sat down and talked," Salat said. "I'd been waiting to find someone like me, the right person to bring in and help run the business.

"When I started, I had been a driver for three years in St. Cloud for another company, managing the Willmar and St. Cloud areas," Salat added. "I wanted to go on my own and so I went down the checklist of what I had to do, one by one. I bought three vehicles and and I was hustling by myself to keep it going."

Salat said he was unable to go after transportation contracts because he was licensed to only provide access transportation services, such as a bus or taxi. Since collaborating with Ben Warne, they have taken steps to qualify for special transportation services. That means they transport people who, because of physical or mental impairment, are unable to safely use a common carrier. The driver provides assistance, also referred to as a "door-through-door" or "station-to-station" service.

The company has three vans, with two of them capable of STS service.

Salat and Warne try to take that a step further, however. They strive to set up a client with a driver who can speak their language. In addition to the Somali population, Reliant Transportation can accommodate people who speak Spanish, Russian, Hmong, Oromo and Swahili.

"There are communities, even within St. Cloud, where we hope to bridge the gap," Warne said. "Getting to know Dool also has allowed me to learn another culture, and I think I'm better for that. I can go in the Mogadishu Mall now and say 'hi' to people and there's no awkwardness."

Salat said Warne has grown to like sambusa, a Somali recipe for a fried or baked pastry with spiced potatoes, onions, peas, lentils and sometimes meat — including ground lamb, ground beef or ground chicken.

"He knows everything about our culture," Salat said of Ben Warne. "A lot of time when people come here, they get Americanized. But Ben has really made an effort to get to know my Somali friends and what we're about. We trust each other and there's a lot of things we can do together. Maybe we can set an example for more people to do the same."

Home
Email

Hiiraan Online