Dillon Blesi: Birthing a Logistics Company Out of Commitment to Doing Right
When Fello Logistics was established in 2021, it was a matter of one Dylan lamenting how hard it is to provide good customer service in logistics – and another Dillon refusing to accept that it had to be that way.
Dillon Blesi, who had done exceptionally well in small business consulting and real estate, decided to meet up with school friend Dylan Campbell to catch up on career pursuits. Campbell was frustrated because, while he loved working in logistics and loved his clients, he found it to be an industry where too few companies value doing the right thing.
“I saw a huge opportunity when he told me he couldn’t serve his clients the way he wanted to,” Blesi said. “I asked him smart questions, and I talked to some other people in the industry. It was kind of the case that, at every brokerage, it seemed to me like no shipper was getting the reliability and service they deserved.”
Blesi – a native of Eden Prairie, Minnesota who now lives in Santa Rosa, California – was also ready for a change. He had spent nearly three years as the top performer wholesaling auto parts to car dealerships. He wanted to do something more ambitious – something that would put service and integrity at the center of the business model. And he realized the best way to do that was to seed his own company, partner with Campbell and bring shippers the kind of service they deserved.
With Blesi as president and Campbell as vice president, the vision is taking hold.
Every new company that enters an industry has to offer something that the industry needs. Blesi believed that, in Fello’s case, that was both straightforward and game changing.
“I noticed in business early on that a lot of people don’t do the right thing,” Blesi said. “So how do you separate yourself? If we’re the most ethical, do-the-right-thing company in any industry, we’ll have a leg up on our competition.”
Of course, most companies claim on some level to be great at customer service. Even the ones that are terrible at it will tell you they do it well. Blesi needed to partner with Campbell to build a team that had both the experience and the commitment to fulfill the great-service vision.
Blesi quickly learned that building a great company, especially if you’re serious about excellence, often requires considerable patience before you get to the point of sustained, solid profitability.
“It takes a lot longer to make a decent profit than you would think, although we got to a point where we have done pretty well,” Blesi said. “We could have banked a lot of money, but instead we reinvested it. We brought in outside help for things we didn’t have experience in, and that is expensive, but it can only pay off. And we do tend to invest in the best technology, people, and systems because cutting corners is not something that aligns with the positive impact we want to make in the logistics industry.”
Commitment to those investments has been tested during the freight market’s recent struggles, but Blesi is more convinced than ever that the pendulum will ultimately swing back – the logistics industry is too fundamental to the U.S. economy – and that Fello will be in an exceptional position when that happens.
When it does, he would like to think his grandfather would have been pleased with the result. Blesi doesn’t remember his grandfather well, since he died when Dillon was only 6. But he learned a great deal about him as he grew up.
“I always heard that he was the most honest business person,” Blesi said.
That’s what Blesi wants to be in the current generation.
“Once you buy something from me, you’ll always buy it from me,” he said. “It’s doing business the way I would want someone doing business with me – every single time.”
And it’s working.
Fello Logistics is known for integrity, reliability, industry-leading customer service and genuine care for it’s clients. Learn more about our freight shipping services.
