Some people stumble into the fleet world. Others hustle their way into it. Aaron Skalka? He did both.

What started as a side job (driving trucks on movie sets) turned into a decades-long journey of hard work, well-timed opportunities, and a whole lot of figuring it out as he went. Today, Skalka is the co-founder of Transportation Resources, LLC, a lean, independently owned fleet operation supporting some of the biggest names in film and television, with over 320 trucks and trailers and operations stretching from Los Angeles to Toronto.

But it didn’t start there. It started with a pink slip, a file clerk job on Angels in the Outfield, and one simple comment: “I always wanted to learn how to drive one of those trucks.”

Rolling the Credits Back

Fresh out of college, Skalka landed a cost-estimating gig at Hollywood Pictures, a division of the Walt Disney Company. A staff shake-up left him without a clear role, until someone offered him a shot to work on a film set in Oakland, California. That’s where he made friends with the transportation captain and started learning how to drive a semi during lunch breaks.

“I thought I was going to climb the executive ranks at Disney,” Skalka said. “But then they laid me off, the movie ended, and I was holding a commercial license with no idea what to do next.”

That’s when the phone rang. A friend offered him a short gig driving on a pilot set, and it paid triple what he had been making. From there, one job led to another. He learned the ins and outs of production logistics, filed time cards, managed budgeting, and earned trust on set. Eventually, a producer told him to start interviewing for coordinator roles just to get experience.

He didn’t expect to land the first one.

'They’re Just Trucks'

“The interview was for a Universal Pictures feature with Kevin Costner. I thought there was no chance,” he said. “So I just told the truth. I said, ‘They’re just trucks. They don’t move unless you put someone in them and tell them where to go.’”

And the truth worked. He was hired as the transportation coordinator, heading up a major film at just 27 years old.

But the real shift happened when the movie hit a delay. With nothing to do for eight weeks and two drivers on the payroll, Skalka and his college roommate Keith Fisher (now his business partner) decided to buy a truck. But just the one.

“The Ford F-550 had just come out. We thought, let’s get a stake bed with a lift gate, rent it out, see what happens,” he said.

That truck went to the X-Files TV set. Then came two bright red retired Coca-Cola Freightliners. A few more jobs, a few more trucks. By 2005, they were buying one or two trucks a year, sometimes just because they found a good deal.

They called the company Transportation Resources, because it sounded big.

“We thought we needed a name that made us seem more legit if something went sideways,” he laughed.

A Business Born from Set Life

For Skalka, Transportation Resources was never supposed to be a full-time gig. He still works in Hollywood as a transportation coordinator on large-scale projects. He’s done movies, commercials, and major series like 1923 and Miami Vice, often in challenging conditions. For our interview he was calling in from his pickup truck out on a Bison Ranch. 

“On my worst days, when it’s 30 below, and we’re trying to move 800 head of cattle in Montana, I still think I’m the luckiest guy I know,” he said.

The fleet now supports production logistics across North America with everything from pickups and sleepers to wardrobe trailers, RV-style cast green rooms, camera trucks, and custom-modified Great Dane trailers that open up like New York City penthouses.

Freightliner and Ford make up most of their power units, with a heavy emphasis on the M2 platform for its right-size price point. They also utilize some Isuzu medium-duties. Still, it’s not all smooth driving.

“We’ve had more consistent quality issues with Freightliner than any other OEM,” Skalka noted. “Especially trucks built in Mexico. But the support from our local dealer and their finance arm has been outstanding.”

Their secret to uptime? Custom programming. 

“We worked with Cummins and Freightliner to reprogram our trucks for high-idle applications. These trucks get low miles but high idle hours, and the standard emissions systems just weren’t cutting it,” he shared.

Still Hustling, Still Grateful

With locations in Los Angeles, Maryland, Atlanta, Toronto, and Texas, Transportation Resources operates a lean team of just 12 people, including three admin and a handful of techs. They manage everything in-house, using a proprietary software platform built long before off-the-shelf fleet solutions were mainstream.

Despite being one of the last mom-and-pop style vendors in the space, they’re holding their own in a market now dominated by equity-backed giants. But Skalka knows that may change.

“But right now, we’re still out here doing it and having a hell of a time,” he said.

Whether it’s a film set in Miami, a snowy cattle scene in Montana, or a tricked-out trailer for an A-lister in New York, Skalka’s approach to fleet is as much about attitude as it is equipment.

“This business, for whatever toll it’s taken, has been good to us,” he said. “It’s been built on hustle, friendships, and a little luck, and I try not to forget that.”