In 2017, Oasis Freight Transport of Kennewick shifted gears from a mom-and-pop trucking outfit operating locally to a cross-state freight brokerage, matching clients’ loads with available trucks and collecting commissions from each brokered load.

Today, the business has cleared $50 million in earnings, serves 48 states, including Alaska and Canada, has 36 employees on its payroll, works with hundreds of clients and thousands of carriers, and the owners, the Garzas – a husband-wife-and-son team – are self-made millionaires.

“There’s no load big or small that we are not geared to transport or carry for you, whether it’s a few hundred pounds or hundreds of thousands of pounds,” said founder Polo Garza Sr.

It’s the kind of small business success story that entrepreneurs dream about.

Driving growth

Garza Sr., a diesel mechanic, founded the company in Othello in 1995. He and his wife, Valerie Garza, ran a small fleet of trucks hauling mostly agricultural crops and commodities as well as construction and landscaping materials that provided for their family of seven.

In 2017, for his college senior capstone project, the couple’s only son, Polo Garza Jr., a business major, developed a plan to transition his parents’ company from local trucking to a freight brokerage.

Working remotely from Tennessee, Garza Jr. began developing this side of the business with his dad’s blessing.

Freight brokering works by pairing up loads with trucks, Garza Sr. explained. “In addition to clients reaching out, someone might call and say, ‘Hey, I’m in Arizona, can you load me?’ or I’ll post a load on my website with a location … We’re able to match the truck with the perfect load on a daily basis, every hour, every minute,” he said.

Back when he was running his own fleet of trucks, Garza Sr. said he might realize a 10% profit on each truck after all expenses were accounted for, but there is more overhead to navigate in maintaining a fleet.

He said in freight brokering, it’s a 3% commission, and dispatchers only have to connect the load with a driver and ensure it’s delivered to the customer’s satisfaction. Many more loads at a time can be managed operating under the brokerage model.

“On a good day, the broker is making 5% to 10% of the gross amount of the load, and they’re not up all night worrying about trucks,” Garza Sr. said.

That first year as a freight broker, Oasis made $3 million. Under its previous business model, it made $250,000 to $300,000 per year. In its second year of freight brokering, it tripled revenue, bringing in $9 million.

It snowballed from there, and in 2022, Oasis cleared $50 million during the Covid-19 pandemic shut-in times when folks were having everything shipped to their homes.

It’s a meteoric rise that could have toppled altogether. 

The littlest Polo Garza is flanked by his dad, Polo Garza Jr., left, and his grandfather Polo Garza Sr., right.

| Courtesy Oasis Freight Transport

Pandemic setback

In 2023, the rubber band effect of the pandemic shutdown and the subsequent economic downturn and unprecedented supply chain disruption took the legs out from under the economy, bringing the shipping industry down with it.

That year, Oasis’ profits were slashed nearly in half, amounting to $27 million.

Garza Sr. said that in the years since, many trucking companies, both big and small, have gone bankrupt due to fiscal reverberations from the pandemic.

“Because of our experience in the business, we were able to survive and be very strategic in the things that we did or didn’t do because we saw the danger of sinking. So, we were very responsible with the decisions we were making. Even though we took a 50% drop, we were able to diversify and stay alive,” he said.

When the pandemic hit, Oasis left its office on Clearwater Avenue in Kennewick near the old grain elevator and its dispatchers began working remotely, interacting in real time via Discord.

During that era, Garza Sr. said the Oasis team really challenged themselves to go after “bigger and better clients,” paving the way for successful future years.

He also pointed to the company being self-financed – buying assets with cash rather than financing – as a key strategy to staying in the black.

In 2025, Oasis was back up to $40 million and moving 100 to 150 loads per day for a total of over 19,500 loads covering some 30 million miles.

Garza Jr. also owns four trucks through Oasis Trucking, a separate LLC, to serve clients who require that brokers run their own trucks.

One of Oasis’ major clients is Weyerhaeuser, which has had a big role in delivering construction materials, heat exchangers and more to Amazon data center projects, both locally in Oregon and across the western U.S., Garza Sr. said.

“I thought the rest of my life I was going to haul potatoes, onions and wheat. It’s really an awesome feeling to live to see the maturity and the expansion of our customers the way it has expanded to work with multibillion-dollar companies known around the world,” he said.

In March 2025, Oasis opened a new 2,500-square-foot office in Suite D of the Morgan Stanley building at 8202 W. Quinault Ave. in Kennewick.

With the assistance of a small airplane, a helicopter and its own hangar at the Bergman Aviation Center in Pasco, the mid-size company is literally poised to reach new heights this year by being able to meet customers where they are, Garza Sr. said.

“We’re looking forward to a huge year and looking forward to breaking some records,” he said. “We do not shrink back, we step up,” he added, citing a company slogan.

Giving back

Family and taking care of employees and customers have been key to the Garza family’s success. “Our customers like us because we’re so down-to-earth and family people, church people and have this awesome family foundation,” Garza Sr. Said.

He said the company’s success is a result of hard work, perseverance and being honest with customers.

“People, what they want is very clear communication – when your yes is a yes, and your no is a no. When it’s there, they respect that. You’re standing true to how you operate,” he said.

Garza Sr. regrets that his dad, also a trucker, died in an accident and didn’t live long enough to witness the company’s success.

“My dad died when he was 40 and he was full of dreams that he never got to fulfill,” said Garza Sr. said, who was 14 at the time, living in Mexico with his four siblings and didn’t end up finishing school.

With his son now at the helm, Garza Sr., 65, finds himself semi-retired. He said his momentum hasn’t slowed, that he is “living life to the fullest.”

He and his extended family are staying busy in their spare time, volunteering with and donating to a number of local and global charitable organizations like Caring Hearts, Mirror Ministries, Convoy of Hope, Instituto Biblico Canaan, Victory Outreach and Faith Assembly of Pasco.

The family also donates musical instruments to children in need.

“I thank God every day for his mercies and for allowing us to live this lifestyle,” he said.

Oasis Freight Transport: 8202 W. Quinault Ave., Suite D, Kennewick, 509-760-7287, oftrans.com.