Research to Roads: JAG Trucking
Amy Gilliland
Jardine Middle School Librarian and Volleyball Coach
JAG Trucking Co-owner
At the end of each day, school librarian Amy Gilliland drives off from Jardine Middle School and makes her way 35 minutes south to Osage County. She pulls into her driveway overlooking the land she and her husband, Jason, now own. To the right, sit large trucks with ‘JAG Trucking’ printed on the sides.
In 2006, Jason and Amy acquired the trucking company from Jason’s former boss and named it JAG Trucking (Jason and Amy Gilliland Trucking). The couple now lives across the street from where Jason grew up — a 10-year plan in the making.
JAG Trucking serves the townships of Osage County by hauling loads of gravel and dirt and being on hand for construction projects. JAG also handles independent projects for homes and smaller scale projects in other areas, including Shawnee County.
Amy is no stranger to hard work. The same year she and Jason acquired the business, she was finishing her master’s degree in Library Science and working full time as an elementary school teacher in Osage.
Her days consist of teaching full time at Jardine Middle School, coaching volleyball for the Jaguars, and then coming home to a variety of tasks for the trucking business. Since trucking is unpredictable, Jason and Amy need to be prepared for anything. Owning large, expensive equipment always comes with unexpected costs, like a blown tire, as well as the expected cleaning and upkeep. Though she doesn’t drive the trucks, Amy is involved with the business in numerous other ways.
“I do most of the paperwork, organizing, sweeping the shop and power-washing the trucks,” Amy said, as Jason jokes that she’ll get behind the wheel one day. “I’ll be the driver evaluator, but I won’t drive it.”
Between owning a business and running a library, Amy says emphatically that organization and communication are her life. Although, she says leaving the library after a long day is much easier than leaving JAG business behind.
“I’m doing paperwork every Sunday morning and crunching numbers. I can walk away from my library, but a business is a 24-hour thing,” she said.
Although Amy and Jason dream of going full time with the business, they are pretty satis ed with life the way it is now.
“I have the best job in the school,” Amy brags.
She says teaching higher level skills like research, working with the entire school, and coaching volleyball are among her favorite parts of what she does.
Amy says the trucking business and her school career are related in many ways. She wants her students to be happy and successful. Similarly, Amy works to provide the best customer service to their trucking customers because she understands that most of their marketing comes from word of mouth.
In addition to providing excellent service, being able to serve their community is the most rewarding thing for Amy and Jason.
“Knowing that we’re driving on roads that we maintain is a sense of pride—to know that you’re contributing to the community,” Amy said.
