In an industry traditionally dominated by men, women—especially women of color—tend to stand out. For JagDeep “Deep” Dhillon, the founder and CEO of Livonia, Michigan-based trucking company RoadEx, standing out is partly about where she’s from: Dhillon immigrated from India’s Punjab region to Canada in 1994, before moving to the U.S. in 2012. But it’s mostly about where she’s going. Founded in 2018, RoadEx has continued to grow and diversify its service offerings, driving revenues from $60 million in 2019 to more than double that figure in 2021. In the last two years alone, RoadEx has more than doubled the number of employees and nearly quadrupled its overall volume of business.

Deep’s story is one of commitment, ingenuity, vision, and inspired leadership, helping to build a small family business into not only one of Michigan’s most distinguished businesses, but one of the most respected transportation companies in the Midwest.

From a small coffee shop to a Canadian trucking company, to an American trucking financial services company, Deep has created and grown successful businesses at every step of her professional journey. But there is no doubt that RoadEx is a professional highlight for her and for her daughter Simran, who officially joined RoadEx as the company’s associate counsel in the Fall of 2021.

RoadEx began by offering flat-rate funding as a service to its trucker customers. With a vision to becoming a one-stop-shop for all trucking needs, Deep and her team added invoice factoring, insurance, dispatch and a fuel program to the company’s suite of offerings. The result is a business that provides a more streamlined and simplified way to manage all the financial and logistical challenges of the trucking business, helping customers avoid the costs and complexities of third-party brokers and insurance providers so they can grow their business and maximize their cash flow and profitability. RoadEx specifically targets small- and mid-size operators with one to five trucks who lack the resources and the bargaining power to compete with the big companies. By providing them with creative new offerings and innovative programs like zero-down insurance, RoadEx makes new opportunities accessible and allows growing numbers of truckers to realize their own entrepreneurial aspirations and become their own boss.

As a woman of color who has regularly dealt with structural obstacles and frustrating assumptions from mostly male industry power structure (including a workforce where almost 9 in 10 employees is male, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), it’s fitting that RoadEx has built a foundation of success by standing up for the little guy and providing services specifically designed to serve underrepresented and under-served groups. Deep has personally dealt with the challenges and inequities of an industry where smaller operators are often taken advantage of, and RoadEx’s dedication to treating everyone fairly and equitably is a testament to the principles, perspective, and personality of its founder—and to the hard-earned experience and expertise she has acquired along the way.

There is no other company like RoadEx in the industry—in large part because of its leader. RoadEx is a highly successful minority-led business with a female founder and CEO who has made a career of breaking new ground in innovative and inspired ways. Simran tells the story of her mother’s response when confused callers speaking with Deep ask to speak to whomever is in charge: “It doesn’t get any more in charge than me.” As an entrepreneurial dynamo who has built RoadEx into one of the most dynamic and influential operators in the industry, Deep Dhillon is simply speaking the truth.