Robert Newman operates a trucking business. His wife, Gwen, has a gift business. Their work couldn’t be more different, yet their philosophy is exactly the same: Do whatever it takes to get the job done and please the customer.

Robert’s business, Trucking Doctors, serves as a sales representative organization for eight different trucking companies. He ships all kinds of general commodities—from helicopter parts to cookies—anywhere in the world. Handling shipments as small as one pound and up to 44,000 pounds, his company will pass the freight through the entire transportation industry, if necessary, from truck to rail and port to air.

“There’s not much we can’t do today,” Robert says. “Every day, I come in and I don’t know what to expect. We just strive to do our best each day.”

A former pre-med student who always wanted to be a doctor, Robert volunteers every Tuesday night in the emergency room at the South Nassau Community Hospital in Oceanside, N.Y. He helps distribute meals to patients, shuttles between departments as a messenger and comforts patients and loved ones waiting in the ER. “They give me a beeper, so it’s like I’m a doctor,” he jokes.

Though he never became a physician, Robert has carved out his niche as a “doctor” for the trucking industry. He coined the company’s tagline: “We prescribe all the remedies for your transportation ailments.” The pads of paper that he uses as promotional items look like prescription pads, and his business card reads: Robert Newman, M.D. (Merchant of Distribution).

“Customers will call and ask to speak to a doctor,” Robert says. “If you have a transportation emergency, you can call me on my cell phone, just like a doctor.”

He is clearly committed to helping customers with their trucking emergencies, just as wife, Gwen, comes to the aid of her customers when they have a gift-giving need.

Gwen Newman started her gift company after a career as a counselor, which she stopped five years ago when a serious illness left her in recovery for an entire year. She wasn’t yet 100 percent recovered but wanted to do something, so Robert suggested that she start a business on the street level of the building his company occupied. “He said, ‘Do something in there, and do it whenever you want. If you need to go home, just leave.’ Wrapping gorgeous gifts was always my thing, so I decided to start a gift company,” Gwen recalls. “Now, I work 12 hours a day, and have enough merchandise to fill my attic, garage and my poor husband’s office. I have people coming in day and night!”

Gwen’s successful enterprise, called Our Best Wishes, provides personalized gifts that are beautifully wrapped. Customers call and describe the person to receive the gift, the occasion and other pertinent details about hobbies or interests. Gwen then pulls together a gift from the shelves of goodies she keeps in supply—including toys and baby items, gourmet foods, stationery and picture frames, body lotions, men’s gifts and a wide assortment of other items. If customers wish to see the gift before it is sent, she photographs it and e-mails it to them for approval. The gift is then wrapped and delivered.

“All of my gifts go out with gorgeous silk ribbons and tulle and metallic shreds, whatever is new and different in the way of wrapping,” she says. “It is always a gorgeously wrapped piece, whether it’s an $8 gift or an $80 gift.”

Customers include corporate executives, politicians and everyday citizens who need a gift for any and all occasions. Some will call with a list of 10 or 15 different people to receive gifts for various reasons, and Gwen will probe for information on each one to ensure that the gifts suit their personal styles and interests. “Is it an 82-year-old grandmother, someone who is married with six kids and a backyard or a single person who lives in a high-rise apartment? Are they funky, fun, conservative? I never send the same gift twice,” she explains. “A woman may get a gorgeous spa basket filled with great lotions and creams and fun slippers and pretty candles and relaxation music. I have all kinds of fun ceramic mugs and platters, and a whole men’s line.”

Over the Christmas holiday, Gwen selects and wraps 800–900 gifts. Throughout the year, she may do anywhere from 10-60 gifts a day. Even the summer months have become a big gift-giving season, as parents call for packages to be sent to their kids at sleep-away camps. One afternoon in mid-June, Gwen sat tying ribbons on 40 bridal shower favors. 

The list of gift-giving occasions continues to grow, just as Gwen’s customer base grows with each new recipient of a gift. She and Robert plan to relocate both of their businesses to another building that will give Our Best Wishes additional space and make room for an assistant to be hired. Still, Gwen says she expects to maintain her personal attention. She, too, gives out her cell phone number to customers for emergencies. “I have customers who work in Manhattan, who might call me at 7 p.m. about a gift they forgot to get for an event at 8 p.m.,” Gwen explains. “I always try to accommodate them.”

Robert and Gwen Newman live in Merrick, N.Y., with daughter, Elizabeth. Their son, Daniel, is a UD sophomore majoring in hotel, restaurant and institutional management.