Dynamic Dozen No. 11: O|amp|S Trucking

O & S Trucking began in 1981 with two men Jim O'Neal and former partner Keith Stever and no trucks. "We just brokered freight," O'Neal said.

After a 1990 move to a new building at 3769 E. Evergreen the building O & S currently occupies things began to change.

"That's when the dynamic growth really occurred, over the last 13 or 14 years," O'Neal said. That's when O & S began leasing to owner-operators and buying company equipment on a regular basis with expansion in mind.

O & S now has 375 trucks on the road, including 160 company-owned, 110 owner-operators in the lease-purchase program, and 105 owner-operators. Expansion has continued, including the recent buyout of Stever Trucking, a company started by Stever after he left O & S in 1987.

"We have about 475 to 500 families that earn their living through this business," O'Neal said. "Of those, 250 of them are employees. The others are independent contractors who lease their trucks here or they hire drivers that are not employees of O & S, but they're certainly under our care, custody and control more or less."

Gross revenues in 1990 were "less than $5 million or $10 million a year," O'Neal said, "and our projections for this year are to do almost $70 million."

O'Neal said 10 or 15 customers account for 70 percent of the company's business, including Reckitt-Benckiser, Pier 1 Imports, SRC, Loren Cook Co., Tyson Foods and Kraft.

Several challenges have faced O & S during its growth.

One has been to maintain a culture that's based on helping individuals achieve goals through a team-based operation. Teaching employees The Great Game of Business philosophy, developed by SRC CEO Jack Stack, has helped O & S develop this attitude. "Business is a game, and in order to have fun at a game, you need to know the rules and know how to keep score and have a stake in the outcome. We've built the whole business around that," he said.

Another challenge, O'Neal said, is to attract and retain qualified drivers and owner-operators, and it's not just a problem for O & S. "It's an industry problem," he said.

A shortage of drivers has been caused by a lack of new drivers entering the industry as older drivers retire. A commercial driver's license can't be obtained before age 21, and O'Neal said most companies are prohibited by insurance carriers from hiring drivers with less than two years of verifiable experience. "So that means you're 23 years old. Well, most people have made some kind of career decision by the time they're 23," O'Neal said.

Health insurance benefits, access to a 401(k) and an employee stock ownership program help O & S retain drivers. O'Neal also recognizes the need for drivers to have time off the road with their families. "We honestly, genuinely care about them, and we want to do everything we can to provide them with a place to make a good living where they can be happy, and they can raise a family and have home time."

The company's employee turnover rate of 65 percent is "much less than the national average. It runs over 100 percent for a lot of companies. That's just awful."

Driving is not what it used to be, O'Neal said. "I think, for many people, it's the job of last resort. It's a very, very difficult lifestyle. It's hard work. It's highly regulated in a compliance fashion and we can't lower our standards."

Those standards have helped O & S receive honors, including Truckload Carriers Association's grand prize for fleet safety in their size category in 1998. "We've placed in the running five out of eight years just because our accident ratio was at the top of the pack," O'Neal said. "That's something we strive for."

O & S's plans for the immediate future include edging the inventory of trucks up to 400 by the end of the year.

As for the future of the industry, O'Neal said he thinks the economy will continue moving forward and freight will continue to need to be moved.

"We're not selling a product or a service that is a luxury item," O'Neal said. "From a business standpoint, there's hardly a business in the United States that doesn't have to factor in a cost of transportation, just like they have to factor in a cost of utilities and a cost for rent and a cost for labor. Transportation is always there."