The long haul
Fifty years is a long time in trucking. Companies we started with have merged, sold, retired, and vanished. Here's how a three-partner tariff publisher from 1973 became the compliance firm you can still call today.
1973 to today
- 1973
One of Minnesota's oldest service bureaus
Three partners, led by Gaylord "Gay" Strand, organize Consultran to publish the freight rates carriers ran on. Within two years it acquires Chicago's Scanlan Traffic Service, extending its roots back to 1947.
- 1980
Deregulation forces us to evolve
The Motor Carrier Act ends the tariff-publishing era almost overnight. Consultran rebuilds around what carriers still need every year: licensing, fuel tax, permits. Adapting to rule changes has been the job ever since.
- 1991
The first employee becomes the owner
Bob Sanft — hired in 1977 as the company's first full-time employee — buys Consultran and runs it for three decades, building our own fuel-tax software and a simple standard: teach the client, check the data, know every name.
- 2022
A new generation takes the wheel
Bob retires after more than four decades and passes the business to Ben Van Zee. Same standard, new energy.
- 2024
Growing again
Consultran acquires Don Norman Associates of Washington, DC — a firm that started the same way we did, publishing freight tariffs, and has helped carriers secure operating authority since 1966. The acquisition expands how we help new carriers get started.
Bob Sanft passed away in October 2024. His story →
Fifty years in, we still answer the phone.
Tell us about your operation — how many trucks, where you run — and we'll tell you exactly which filings you need and what they cost. No obligation.