Black-Owned Transportation Company Receives PPP Loan and Technical Assistance From BBIF

BBIF Client Spotlight: Randall Transportation, LLC

Small businesses account for 99% of all companies in the United States and impact their local communities in various ways. The most common way small businesses benefit a local community is by providing job opportunities and stimulating the economic cycle. Randall Transportation, LLC is a small family-operated, Black-owned transportation company that has been in business since 1942. They have been able to remain successful for seven decades by evolving and recognizing the opportunities that lay at any corner.

Randall Transportation, LLC has a humble beginning. Their small business started with owning one vehicle to owning a fleet of over 20. They provide transportation services for Duval County Public, private, and charter schools and different community organizations. Randall Transportation is looking to expand its services to include clients like the Jacksonville Port Authority.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many businesses faced the uncertainty of whether they will be able to maintain operations. For Randall Transportation they received the notice to cease all operations because schools, which included the bulk of their contracts, were no longer offering face-to-face learning. From March 2020- August 2020, Randall Transportation was not operating its regular routes. This caused their 30 employees to be without work, and business owners Sherman and Angela Randall to rethink their plans to expand.

For many small-owned businesses, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was the saving grace needed to remain afloat. Unfortunately, in the initial rollout of PPP loans, many minority businesses could not get funding or had difficulty completing their application due to the surplus of applicants. Randall Transportation, LLC was not immune to this feat. When applying for the PPP Loan through their primary financial institution, their bank informed them that they were no longer accepting applications. Hearing this news devastated owners Sherman and Angela because they felt they would not receive the help they so desperately needed. 

Fortunately, Randall Transportation, LLC connected with a BBIF team member in their community, recommended by another BBIF client, and close friend of the Randalls. They recommended the community development financial institution as a viable way to obtain funding and technical support opportunities. Through this connection, Randall Transportation, LLC acquired PPP funding and participated in BBIF’s Resiliency Ecosystem, which includes financial technical assistance training, BBIF Connect – a new Facebook group centered around networking and best practice sharing, the Initiate platform, and one-on-one coaching. 

Receiving the PPP loan allowed Randall Transportation, LLC to keep its 30 employees on the payroll. During the summer of 2020, the staff maintained the buses and carried maintenance crews to different schools in the Duval County Public School District to prepare for school reopening in August. Randall Transportation, LLC was also able to show their business’s viability and remain credit eligible for capital, allowing them to purchase more vehicles and continue with their expansion plans.