‘LittleCompany’ Into National Leader


Acklie Builds Duane Acklie, Crete Carrier Corp.


BY STEVE BRAWNER Contributing Writer


With more than 5,000 power units and


more than 13,000 trailers, Lincoln-based Crete Carrier Corp’s family of companies is one of the largest privately held trucking firms in the country. It’s chairman and former CEO, Duane Acklie, is a national leader in and out of trucking. And it all came about over two pitchers of iced tea. Acklie, a partner in the Acklie and Peterson


law firm, had been Crete Carrier’s attorney since Ken Norton had founded the company in 1966. By 1971, the company was still a small interstate truckload carrier with six contracts doing $6 million worth of business, primarily peddle delivery. It owned no equipment, some leased trailers and a small cadre of owner-operators. Acklie had filed the company’s articles of incorporation and handled its Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) applications and contract negotiations, so he knew about the business. Norton had started another company in his hometown in Salt Lake City, and he was eager to sell, but a potential buyer backed out at the last minute. Despite the fact that Acklie, then 39, loved being a lawyer, on the flight home from that meeting he asked Norton if he would sell to him. “I kind of wanted to build something, and I


liked the little company,” he said. Norton didn’t really answer at the time, but


soon afterwards in June 1971 the two met at Acklie’s Capitol Beach Lake house in Lincoln. Tey negotiated until midnight while Acklie’s wife, Phyllis, served them two pitchers of iced tea. Te seven-figure deal required Acklie to


obtain the money within three days. He put $8,000 down and borrowed the rest. “I was so nervous, I went out and walked


around the lake the rest of the night, did not go to sleep,” Acklie said. Acklie moved into the company’s office in


the second floor of what had been a creamery and cold storage building in Crete. He had


I LIKED THE LITTLE COMPANY.”


never worked full-time in trucking, but he had observed other executives such as Bill Watkins, Guy Bostick, J.B. Hunt and Clarence Werner, and he tried to learn from their example. He said his belief was, “If I was going to pay


for it, we had to grow it.” So he began calling on his major customers asking how he could better serve them and get more business. He financed trailers to increase his capacity while still relying on owner-operators, of which there was such an oversupply that he had a waiting list. Te first year, he doubled the size of the company. “Te one thing I did really right was I


went to the traffic managers at these major companies every month, sat down with them, and spent whatever time they could afford.” For three years, Acklie continued to grow


WANTED TO BUILD SOMETHING, AND


“I KIND OF


Crete Carrier until it had reached more than 300 trucks, all owner-operators. In 1973, he moved the company to Lincoln. Early in its existence, Crete focused on auto parts, which was a problem because production stopped one month each year, and the carrier had to scramble to find loads to haul. So instead Acklie decided to move into foodstuffs, a product that would move year-round regardless of the economy, and haul auto parts only on an aftermarket basis. Tis was the early 1970s, before


deregulation, when interstate contract carriers were required to obtain certificates of authority from the ICC to haul for new customers. At the time, a contract carrier could expect only to obtain about six contracts, a limit Crete Carrier had reached. Still, Acklie was determined to grow his company, which he did with help with a temporary authority to haul for General Electric. “We had a great opportunity to grow with them,” Acklie said. “Tat was in the days when they still made irons and dishwashers and refrigerators and all that in the United States.” Te regulated environment meant that


the best way to grow the company often was to purchase another. In 1974, Crete Carrier bought Hill Truck Line out of Tennessee, a canned goods hauler with about 40 trucks. Te purchase increased the back hauls available from loads Crete was hauling out of that state. Tat same year Crete applied to purchase Shaffer Trucking, a refrigerated common carrier with 100 company-owned trucks. Te purchase went about as well as it could have.


Continues NEBRASKA TRUCKER — ISSUE 4, 2015 — www.nebtrucking.com 17


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