Tracy Tenorio got his start behind the wheel of a commercial truck with FedEx, then spent 17 years in a similar role with United National Foods. But when an opening with Toyota Transport presented itself in 2008, he didn’t hesitate to take advantage of it.

“When I got this job it felt like I had won the lottery,” said Tenorio, who is based in Benicia, California, and delivers vehicles to Toyota and Lexus dealers — as well as rental car companies and special events — throughout Northern California. “I love cars. And I love driving. So, it was a win-win for me.”

Brian Quick tells a similar story. He found his way to Toyota Transport in 2015 after delivering soda to retail outlets for 10 years.

“You could see the soda business was declining as people started making healthier beverage choices,” said Quick, who services dealers in Southern California out of Toyota’s Vehicle Delivery Operations facility in Mira Loma, east of Los Angeles. “I knew people who knew of Toyota Transport. They all said it was an excellent opportunity. So, I took a chance, and it has worked out great.”

Team Member Pride
Tenorio and Quick are just two of nearly 100 delivery specialists at Toyota Transport. Each is a full-time team member which sets them apart from most of their counterparts who work for third-party companies contracted by automakers to transport new vehicles to their dealerships. Nearly one in four Toyota and Lexus vehicles sold in the U.S. make that “last mile” journey on a Toyota Transport rig.

This has been true since 1988 when Toyota Transport set up shop on the West Coast. Today, the delivery specialists’ movements are orchestrated by a small but efficient management team headed up by Toyota Logistics Services Senior Manager Adam Lee Ryden.

Toyota dealers in the Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland regions and Lexus dealers in the Lexus Western Area depend on them to keep the metal moving.

“We are an industry leader when it comes to on-time performance,” Ryden said. “These days, most of the vehicles we transport have been pre-sold. We know there are customers on the other end who are waiting for them. So, we do everything we can to get those vehicles to those customers as fast as we can.”

Fast, yes. But also safe. Toyota Transport completely replaces its fleet of haulers every five years. All must be operated within Department of Transportation (DOT) guidelines such as the weight of the vehicles that can be loaded onto a hauler and the distribution of that weight. And the DOT limits drivers to five 14-hour days per week — though at Toyota Transport most delivery specialists log 10-hour days.

Those are the government mandates. But Toyota Transport, in keeping with the company’s core value of respect for people, goes further.

“Work-life balance is not necessarily a priority in the auto hauling industry,” said Senior Analyst Carla Melgar. “But it is a priority at Toyota Transport. We’re proving that we can serve our customers — Toyota and Lexus dealers — and deliver the vehicles while at the same time taking care of our delivery specialists.”

Here’s a tangible example of how this works: In 2024, Toyota Transport conducted a go-and-see campaign that included asking the delivery specialists for their opinions on what they liked about the current haulers and what they’d like to see on future rigs. Melgar notes that the trailer manufacturers were “floored that we would include our team members in this decision-making process.”

Still, this is very demanding work. Delivery specialists are deployed across two shifts five days a week, with the day shift starting between 1 and 3 a.m. and the night shift between 1 and 3 p.m. The objective is to try to be on the road when traffic is at a minimum to avoid, as Ryden puts it, the muda of wasted time.

“This is definitely not a 9-to-5 job,” he said. “Sometimes our delivery specialists go to bed at 6 p.m. so they can wake up and be safe the next day. It’s a unique environment that we operate in.”

“It’s not for everyone,” Quick said. “We are out in the elements. We’re dealing with people that, more and more, are distracted by their cell phones. So, you’re not just driving for yourself but for the people around you. You have to really want to do this job to be successful at it.”

There’s also more to it than the challenges of safely piloting a hauler that could weigh up to 80,000 pounds when fully loaded. The delivery specialists must first scan a vast lot that rivals that of large sports venues to locate the vehicles to be delivered, inspect those vehicles to ensure they’re free of damage and get them onto the hauler in the optimal configuration. Then, once at the dealership, they must offload those vehicles — again without incurring any damage.

Quick and Tenorio said it typically takes six months of training before a delivery specialist is fully entrusted with taking on all the above on their own. After all, given the high price of new cars these days, the value of each of those loads could easily approach $500,000. And it’s not uncommon for each delivery specialist to deliver three loads of vehicles per shift.

Yet, in spite of the pressures, Toyota Transport has very little turnover. Once a driver lands one of these jobs, they’re likely to remain in it until they retire.

“Toyota really takes care of us,” Quick said. “The compensation package is great. The respect management shows us is phenomenal. We are a team. Everyone wants to see the next person succeed. That’s why once you get here, you don’t want to leave. When we have a posting for a job, we get overwhelmed with applicants. Everyone in this industry knows that Toyota Transport is where you want to be.”

“One of our drivers, Roger Pipa, just celebrated his 25th year with the company,” Tenorio said. “I’ve been here a long time. But there are still seven to eight guys ahead of me when it comes to seniority. You just don’t see that anywhere else in this industry.”

“It’s because we are the manufacturer, not a contractor,” Quick added. “That is the gamechanger. The culture, whether you work at headquarters or a manufacturing plant or Toyota Transport, is the same. Respect for people aren’t just words. It’s a very real thing.”