A freight brokerage may seem straightforward from the outside. A business needs to move a load, a carrier has the equipment to move it, and the broker brings both sides together. In reality, building a freight brokerage that can handle a growing number of shipments requires strong customer relationships, dependable carrier connections, experienced employees, and systems that keep everyone informed. The story of Ricklefs and King of Freight reflects how those pieces came together over time, starting with a small Wichita operation and developing into a larger freight brokerage serving businesses across the country.
Starting King of Freight in Wichita
King of Freight was founded in Wichita in 2008, giving the company a long history in the freight brokerage industry. Public business reporting has connected Mike Ricklefs with the company’s early development, including its beginnings as a relatively small operation. For businesses searching for a king of freight Wichita connection, the company’s Wichita roots remain an important part of its identity and history.
The basic idea behind the business was practical. Companies need transportation for products, equipment, materials, and other freight, but they do not always operate their own trucking fleets. A freight broker can connect those businesses with carriers that have the equipment and capacity needed for particular shipments.
King of Freight operates as a third-party freight brokerage rather than as a traditional trucking carrier. That means its role is focused on arranging transportation, coordinating with carriers, communicating with customers, and monitoring shipments rather than maintaining a conventional fleet of trucks.
This model also creates a different set of challenges as a company grows. A brokerage has to build relationships with reliable carriers while also giving customers accurate information about pricing, pickup times, delivery expectations, and shipment status. Those responsibilities become more complicated as the number of customers and shipments increases.
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Growth Required More Than More Freight
The growth of King of Freight became visible through its expansion in Wichita. In the company’s earlier years, growth meant more customers and more shipments, but it also meant needing additional employees and office space to manage the increasing workload.
Reporting from The Wichita Eagle documented the company’s office expansion during the middle of the 2010s. The business was increasing its office footprint as its workforce and sales continued to grow, showing that the company’s expansion was not simply a matter of handling more loads from the same small operation.
This is an important distinction when looking at a freight brokerage’s growth. More freight requires more people who can communicate with shippers and carriers, arrange transportation, respond to changes, and keep paperwork organized. A brokerage can have strong demand, but without enough people and proper processes, additional volume can quickly create service problems.
King of Freight’s current approach reflects the importance of those operational details. The company says its team monitors shipments once loading begins and provides customers with updates when delays or other issues occur. Customers can also receive information through different communication methods, depending on how they prefer to manage their shipments.
That type of communication becomes increasingly important as a brokerage grows. A shipper does not necessarily need a long explanation every time something changes. They need accurate information at the right time so they can make decisions about their own business.
Ricklefs and the People Behind the Company
The story of ricklefs is closely associated with the development of King of Freight, particularly through Mike Ricklefs’ involvement with the company. Public reporting has covered his role in the business and his comments about its expansion, employees, and operations as the company became larger.
Still, a freight brokerage does not grow through one person’s work alone. The daily operation depends on teams handling sales, brokerage, carrier relationships, customer communication, documentation, billing, and shipment monitoring. As the company added customers and freight volume, having enough people to manage those responsibilities became an important part of the business.
The company’s service process gives a good example of how many individual tasks can sit behind one freight shipment. A customer first provides information about the load and when it needs to move. Once pricing is agreed upon, transportation is arranged, the shipment is monitored during transit, and delivery information and paperwork are handled afterward.
Each stage requires communication between different parties. The shipper needs information from the broker, while the broker needs accurate information from the carrier. If pickup times change, traffic causes a delay, or a delivery issue appears, someone needs to communicate the update and determine what happens next.
That is one reason freight brokerage remains a people-oriented business even as transportation technology improves. Tracking systems can provide useful information, but someone still needs to interpret what is happening and communicate with the customer when action is required.
Expanding the Wichita Operation
King of Freight’s physical expansion provides another way to understand the company’s growth. During the 2010s, the company moved into larger office facilities in Wichita as its workforce increased.
One significant step came when King of Freight leased space in the Ruffin Building. The company later expanded its presence within the building, giving it considerably more office space than it had occupied during its earlier years.
For a freight brokerage, office growth can be closely connected to operational growth. More employees can mean more customer accounts, more carrier relationships, and more shipments being managed at the same time. It can also allow different teams to focus on specific parts of the shipping process rather than requiring a small group to handle everything.
The company’s expansion eventually included a move to the former Gander Mountain building at WaterWalk in downtown Wichita. The larger facility provided room for a significantly bigger workforce and became another visible sign of the company’s development.
The Wichita location also gives the company a clear connection to the local business community. Although freight may travel hundreds or thousands of miles after leaving a customer’s facility, the coordination behind those shipments can begin with a team working from Wichita.
From Wichita to Other Markets
King of Freight’s growth has not been limited to Wichita. As the company developed, it expanded its presence into additional markets, giving it access to employees and business relationships outside Kansas.
That type of expansion makes sense for a freight brokerage because the freight itself is rarely limited to one local market. A customer in Wichita may need to ship to Texas, Florida, Arkansas, or another state, while a carrier operating in one region may need a load moving in another direction.
A brokerage has to think about those connections constantly. It needs to understand where freight is available, where carriers are operating, what equipment is needed, and how different shipping lanes affect pricing and availability.
Expanding into other markets can help a brokerage develop a broader network while maintaining its original headquarters. For King of Freight, Wichita remains an important part of the company’s identity even as its operations have extended beyond the city.
This broader reach is also relevant to customers that ship regularly. A business may start with a few shipments but eventually add new suppliers, customers, warehouses, or distribution markets. Working with a brokerage that can coordinate different types of freight and destinations can become useful as those needs change.
Why the Freight Brokerage Model Matters
The growth of King of Freight also helps explain why businesses use freight brokers in the first place. Operating a private trucking fleet is not practical for every company, especially when freight volumes fluctuate or shipments move across many different routes.
Owning trucks comes with responsibilities that extend beyond transportation itself. Businesses have to think about drivers, equipment, maintenance, insurance, compliance, fuel, scheduling, and utilization. A company that does not want to manage all of those responsibilities can instead work with transportation providers through a freight brokerage.
A broker’s job is to coordinate the transportation arrangement. The shipper provides information about the freight, origin, destination, timing, and other requirements, while the brokerage works to arrange suitable transportation.
The process can become especially useful when shipments have different requirements. One load may need a particular trailer, another may have a strict pickup appointment, and another may require closer monitoring because the delivery is time-sensitive.
King of Freight’s services include FTL and LTL shipping, giving businesses options based on the size and requirements of their freight. Full truckload shipping is generally used when a shipment requires most or all of a truck’s capacity, while less-than-truckload shipping is designed for smaller freight that can share trailer space with other shipments.
Understanding these differences helps businesses make better shipping decisions. The right option depends on factors such as shipment size, timing, destination, handling requirements, and available transportation capacity.
King of Freight and the Wichita Business Story
The story of king of freight is also connected to the broader business development of Wichita. Local reporting has followed the company’s expansion through different stages, including its office moves, hiring activity, and increasing presence within the city’s commercial community.
That history is useful because it puts the company’s growth into a local context. King of Freight did not begin as a large national operation with a huge workforce and extensive office space. Its development happened over a number of years, with the company repeatedly expanding its facilities and workforce as the business grew.
The company’s Wichita roots are still relevant even though freight brokerage is inherently national in scope. A shipment coordinated by a Wichita team may involve a shipper in one state, a carrier based in another, and a final delivery somewhere else entirely.
This is one of the unusual aspects of freight brokerage. The physical location of the brokerage and the physical movement of the freight can be completely different. What connects them is the coordination taking place behind the scenes.
For businesses, that coordination can have a direct effect on the shipping experience. A carrier may be responsible for physically moving the freight, but the broker can remain the point of contact for the shipper throughout the process.
What Businesses Can Learn From the Growth
The growth of King of Freight offers a practical look at what happens when a freight brokerage develops beyond its early stages. More customers and more shipments create a need for additional employees, larger facilities, broader carrier relationships, and systems that can support communication at a greater scale.
For companies arranging freight, those same factors are useful when evaluating a brokerage. The size of a company alone does not guarantee a good shipping experience. Businesses should also consider how a brokerage handles carrier selection, shipment monitoring, communication, documentation, and changes during transit.
King of Freight’s website places particular emphasis on shipment visibility and customer communication. Its process includes monitoring freight while it is in transit and notifying customers about delays, while its online tools allow customers to track shipments and access information.
Those features address some of the most common frustrations involved in freight shipping. A business does not want to discover a delivery problem after the expected arrival time has already passed. Regular updates give shipping teams more time to adjust schedules, communicate with their own customers, or make other arrangements.
The history behind King of Freight is therefore more than a story about a company getting bigger. It shows how a Wichita freight brokerage developed its workforce, facilities, services, and reach around the practical demands of moving commercial freight. From its beginnings in 2008 to its larger operation today, the company’s development has remained closely tied to the people, customers, and transportation relationships that keep freight moving.
