Delbert Crawford says some of his friends call him a businessman. Crawford corrects them: "No, I am a business, man."
That explains the mindset of a bootstrapped founder whose mission is to help people change their lives through a new career path in commercial trucking.
Crawford launched Changing Lanes CDL School LLC in Pflugerville in fall 2020 after years of trucking experience and after launching a prior trucking business that was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. He bartered, traded, attended auctions for affordable office furniture and used his savings to secure office and test driving space.
"I've come a long way," he said. "If it wasn't for God, I don't know what I'd do."
Now Crawford has even bigger plans in mind. This week, Crawford was selected as winner of the second Austin FC Dream Starter Competition. He was selected from five finalists and will receive a $100,000 prize.
"That will allow me to reach more people, change more lives, buy another truck, hire another instructor and add marketing," he said. "I'll be able to market like I really want to ... now I can market to the whole Austin area — not just Pflugerville and Round Rock."
The Dream Starter Competition launched last year during Austin FC's inaugural season. It's a collaboration between stadium sponsor Q2 Holdings Inc. and local nonprofit startup accelerator DivInc.
in 2021, the $100,000 prize went to Anthony Gantt, founder of At Ease, a company building a home rental platform catering to military members and other federal employees.
Crawford himself is a veteran. He grew up in Mississippi and joined the Navy after he ran into some trouble and had a judge offer him two options: the military or his dad would find out.
"My dad is a 6'4, 300-pound man," he said. "I am terrified of my dad."
The judge convinced Crawford that he did indeed know his dad.
"When he said that, I said, 'I'll go to the military, please don't tell my dad,'" he said.
Crawford fell in love with travel while serving in the Navy and later as a forward observer in the Army. He got into trucking in 2007 after attending a training academy.
"I haven't looked back since," he said. "The freedom of the open road. Think about it. How many people actually pay you to go travel? There are not a lot of industries where you get to go to the Big Apple, the Big Easy, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas."
Crawford gets fired up about how a job in trucking can open people up to new experiences, as well as transform their finances.
He said his youngest student was 18 and his oldest student was 74.
"That's why I do what I do — to change people's lives and to be able to see that smile on their face when they get their CDL," he said. "I've had a big, burly grown man hugging, crying, and I almost had one of them kiss me."
He said a homeless woman enrolled in his commercial driver's license class through a local workforce organization. These days, she's got a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Crawford churns out a lot of similar stories about people who have changed lanes to increase their income and see more of the country.
"Trucking does not discriminate against anyone," he said. "The companies may, but anyone can get into trucking, whether you have a clean record or a rap sheet a mile long, you can do it."
