In It for the Long Haul: A Spotlight on Dependable’s Longest-Serving Employees

What makes someone stay with the same company for 17, 20, or even 32 years? It’s a question most industries struggle to answer, but for Dependable’s longest-serving team members, the answer is surprisingly consistent: it’s the people.

This quarter, we’re proud to spotlight three employees whose combined tenure represents 69 years of institutional knowledge, trusted relationships, shared history, and steady commitment.

Clint Childress, Billing Manager: 32 Years

Clint Childress almost didn’t show up. In 1994, he spotted a Dependable listing in the Sunday paper and told his friends about it, mostly for their benefit. He was nearly done with a computer retraining program and had no real plans to come himself. The next morning, he showed up anyways.

Out of 250 applicants, five got hired. Clint was one of them, and he’s the only one still with Dependable. He started in receiving, checking in Goodyear tires every single day. About a year and a half in, he moved into billing. When a warehouse issue came up in San Leandro, he was one of the team members sent north to sort it out, putting in long hours alongside the CFO. After that, whenever Dependable opened a new location, Clint was on the list to help set it up: Fresno, Sacramento, San Leandro, and more.

Now Billing Manager, Clint oversees billing across all of Dependable’s warehouses and leads two direct reports. He’s watched the company grow from two warehouses to today’s four, and seen monthly revenue climb from around $2 million to $4.5 million and beyond.

When asked what’s kept him here, Clint didn’t hesitate in his reply: the people. When he lost his children’s mother at 27, his Dependable family showed up for him in ways he says he’ll never forget. “Without some of the people who were here at that time, I don’t know how I would have made it through.” The company has also sponsored his Little League teams over the years. And in 2019, they surprised him with a celebration for his 25th anniversary. He still talks about it fondly.

Irene Silva, Office Manager, DLS Department: 20 Years

Irene Silva walked into Dependable in September 2006 with a background in retail management and apartment leasing, and not a day of experience in transportation. She was 24, raising her daughters, and looking for a stable Monday-through-Friday job. She got the interview, she got the offer, and she started a few days later.

Twenty years on, she’s the Office Manager of the DLS department, keeping a full office running: tracking in-transit orders, managing rate requests, overseeing the team, and still jumping in hands-on wherever needed. She was also the person responsible for DLS’s famous potlucks when her team was still located at the main building. “Everybody knew about them,” she says. “We didn’t disappoint.”

Irene’s path through the company reads like a tour of its inner workings: billing clerk, customer service, payables, operations, and then Office Manager. There was a moment around age 30 when she almost left to pursue something else. Her mentor Ken, who was running the DLS department at the time, sat down and walked through her options, convincing her to stay. She looks back on that conversation as the turning point.

Irene describes her 20-year anniversary as a sort of renewal of vows. “This is the longest relationship I’ve ever had,” she says. “Commitment is in my vocabulary, and here’s the proof.” Looking ahead, she’s setting her sights on sales, with an edge most reps don’t have: two decades of internal hands-on experience.

Rebecca Ornelas, HR/Payroll Lead: 17 Years

Rebecca Ornelas joined Dependable in April 2009 with one job: to process payroll and make sure everyone got paid accurately and on time. When the HR manager eventually moved on, Rebecca stepped in to learn that side of things too. She’s been running both ever since.

Today Rebecca handles Human Resources and payroll for the entire company, with one employee and a student worker supporting her. She’s fluent in Spanish, which makes her an essential bridge in a building where roughly 90% of employees speak Spanish as their primary language. Managers frequently call on her to translate. Employees come to her with questions, issues, and system questions. She takes pride in being the one who helps employees find solutions to their issues before it becomes a bigger problem.

Rebecca is currently navigating two major system migrations at the same time, which is no small feat on top of her regular workload. Through it all, her commitment hasn’t wavered. “I’m just happy here at Dependable,” she says. “I just want to be here until the wheels fall off.” Her desire is to continue to grow in the legal and ever changing practical aspects of Human Resources, and she’s focused on growing into it from right where she is.

Three departments, three very different paths, and 69 years of collective service. What Clint, Irene, and Rebecca share is something harder to put on paper than a job title: it’s the feeling that your company sees you, supports you, and gives you room to grow. That kind of loyalty doesn’t happen by accident, and we’re proud to count them as part of the Dependable family.