08/19/2025
In 1965, Ralph L. “Larry” Roberts Sr. wasn’t a billionaire. He was a small-town Ohio man with a hustle, a dream, and one truck.
He and his friend, Ronald Campbell Jr., scraped together enough to buy that truck and started hauling furniture on nights and weekends. They called it R+L Trucking. “R” for Roberts, “L” for Larry.
The work was brutal. Long days on the road, late nights loading freight by hand, and endless hours chasing customers. Within a year, Campbell bowed out, worried the job would take him away from his family. Larry kept going, alone.
His break came when he bought freight authority from Mayflower Moving & Storage. For the first time, he could legally haul freight across state lines. That move transformed a one-truck side hustle into R+L Carriers, Inc.
When the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 deregulated the industry, dozens of carriers went under. Larry went the other way, incorporating R+L Transfer and mapping out a growth system designed to take over lanes in the Midwest and South.
The 1980s and ’90s were an acquisition spree:
Gator Freightways in Florida (1989) cracked the southern market.
Greenwood Motor Lines in North Carolina (1992) locked down the East Coast.
Herder Truck Lines in Texas (1996) opened the Southwest.
By the mid-2000s, R+L had coverage in all 50 states, plus Canada, Puerto Rico, and beyond, moving 45,000 shipments every single day.
today it is estimated that R&L carriers generates over 3 billion dollars annually and the company itself is worth in-between $3 and $4 billion dollars.
Larry Sr. passed away in 2023 after a battle with cancer, but he left behind a business that was 100% privately owned, debt-free, and entirely in family hands.
Today, his son Roby Roberts runs R+L as CEO. The family’s success is on full display, including a $20 million beachside estate in Florida, but the company’s DNA hasn’t changed. No outside investors. No corporate control. Just the Roberts family calling the shots.
From a single truck hauling furniture in Ohio to a multibillion-dollar freight giant with its name on race cars, stadiums, and national sports events, R+L Carriers is a family-built legacy that’s still dominating America’s highways.