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COVER STORY “HE’S [CASEY JONES, FOUNDER] A


DISPATCHER. JUST LIKE ALL THE REST OF US. SAME ROLE. WE’VE GOT FIVE GUYS UP HERE; HE’S ONE OF THE FIVE. WHEN YOU CALL


WE PICK UP THE PHONE ANDWHATEVER IS GOING ON ON THE OTHER END,WHETHER IT IS A SALES CALL OR DISPATCH CALL OR


ROUTING A DRIVER,WE ALL TAKE A PART OF THAT EQUALLY.”


both ways. You weed out those people early. Those people that are willing and can do the job actually are a little more dedicated and work harder and do the job better overall for a longer time. “It shows a level of commitment you


wouldn’t get any other way.” And when the newly minted drivers


assume their duties within the company, they do so as well-rounded employees with a bottom to top view of how the company works. And the drivers appreciate the fact that the folks in dispatch and elsewhere have an appreciation for what they go through on the road. “Every dispatcher, every manager here


can speak to a lot of problems that drivers experience on a day to day basis and we can speak to them with some level of authority,” Sohlberg said. “And in some cases some of the dispatchers here may have more on the road experience than some of the drivers we talk to every day. “And it’s comforting to a driver when you


can say, ‘That’s such and such a company and when you get in there make sure you talk to Bill the manager; he’s a great manager. There’s a great place to park off to the right and you can spend the night there.’ That kind of experience we can relate to our drivers is invaluable. Jones Brothers has been operating as an


irregular route, 48-state and Canada, flatbed carrier since the late 1970s. Jones Brothers was incorporated in 1984, after the Federal Motor Carrier Act of 1980 helped deregulate the industry, and Casey Jones began adding additional owner operators to his fleet and to operate company flatbeds servicing northwest


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Montana, Idaho, and eastern Washington lumber mills and hauling barbed wire, and assorted agricultural products back to the Dakotas, Montana and the Northwest. Jones Brothers currently operates


40 company trucks and has 15 owner operators. In keeping with a theme, all of the independent owner operators were at one time Jones Brothers drivers. The company offers drivers who have


been with Jones Brothers for at least one year an opportunity to take their career to the next level. Jones Brothers offers a revenue split package which has been simplified to ease understanding and allow operators the chance of success. “We won’t take owner operators that have


not worked as a company driver,” Sohlberg said. “We want to know how they work, what their goals are, how safe they are and how they can manage a business. And then we’ll offer them a good deal on one of our used trucks and equipment. We’ll set them up with an opportunity to be successful. “We split the revenue with them 80-20


and that works out quite well for most of our owner operators. It’s kind of the next step for a driver. When they become professional the next thing they want to be is in business for themselves.” Sohlberg grew up in Missoula, but despite


the local trucking influence he never pictured himself entering the business. He went to the University of Colorado in Boulder and earned a double major in business and history, then answered a blind ad for a management trainee at NorthwestTransport, later changed to NationsWay, and started out working nights. It was there Sohlberg realized his


knowledge gap when it came to the experience of the long haul driver. He and his wife Cathy returned to Missoula in 1996, and after a stint with Bitterroot International he joined up with Jones Brothers, and went on to come up with his driver training plan for employees. “I realized there’s a better way to get


these guys the respect and the knowledge that goes with that respect than just sticking them behind the phone and trying to figure out what a driver is talking about and what he means when he says he is out of hours,” Sohlberg said. In Jones Brothers, Sohlberg found a


professional home that was not too big and not too small, with a method of operating he could respect. “We always operate in a pretty


conservative manner fiscally just because we know that there’s always going to be another bad cycle coming,” Sohlberg said. “So during the good times you get prepared for the bad times because the bad times are going to come around. If you overextend yourself you’re only going to get in trouble when those bad times come around.” Sohlberg isn’t the only guy to come to


Jones Brothers and make an impact. After a 25-year career at Helena-based Watkins and Shepard Trucking, Tom Walter came on board and in 10-plus years as safety director he has helped Jones Brothers establish a sterling safety record while helping the drivers navigate the jungle of regulations governing the industry today. “It’s a constant battle,” Sohlberg said.


“Every day, every driver. Tom constantly works to educate guys not just walking in here who are new, but guys who have been here 10 or 12 years. They know their job but they’re not always in touch with a new regulation or new law that is coming down the pike.” If you were limited to just one statement


about Jones Brothers, it would be that the employees definitely know their jobs, from the front office to dispatch to the road and back. Sohlberg said it is gratifying to see Casey Jones, the founder and perhaps the most knowledgeable driver in the company — if experience counts for anything — sharing his wisdom with a regular dispatch shift. “He’s a dispatcher. Just like all the rest


of us,” Sohlberg said. “Same role. We’ve got five guys up here; he’s one of the five. When you call we pick up the phone and whatever is going on on the other end, whether it is a sales call or dispatch call or routing a driver, we all take a part of that equally.” RW


ROADWISE | ISSUE 1, 2012 | www.mttrucking.org


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