• Harry Kimball, a veteran, award- winning safety official in the industry who joined the company a year ago. He was hired away from Western Flyer out of Oklahoma.
• Jeff Coffren, the VP of maintenance with 25 years of trucking history and recent experience in on-highway equipment in particular powertrain spec’ing, predictive maintenance and analytics
“I still get a rush with this,” said the
59-year-old Kimball, who plans to make this his last job and Arkansas his home in retirement. “I love to win. I’m a terrible loser. I get a rush when these things are rolling out, every time we make one of our goals.” Those five and everyone else in the
Russellville office are always at the fore- front of Wallace’s comments about the company. “It is all because of them that we’re where we are now,” he said. “Bill and I could not be more proud of the people at Transco Lines and the work that they have done to service our customers. Only by doing so have we been able to grow the business.” Wallace and Grojean, who had
known each other through the indus- try with different companies for several years, saw an opportunity to form their own partnership in 2003, and their first purchase was Kansas City’s Riverside Transport and its 75 power units. They quickly picked up another small
line within a month. Then, on April 2, 2012, they acquired Transco Lines from Zella Harrell, widow of company founder Jim Harrell, vowing to keep it based in Russellville even though they both lived a half-day away by car. All of their holdings now total 800
power units, primarily with Transco Lines and the shorter-haul Riverside, Wallace said. “We absolutely tag team it,” Wallace
said of running the companies with Grojean; on the day we visited with Wallace in Russellville, Grojean was call- ing in from a Riverside Transport termi- nal in Owensboro, Ky.
28
“IT’S BEEN A LOT OF HARD WORK AND WE HAVE A LOT OF GOOD PEOPLE WORKING FOR US … WHAT MAKES
IT ENJOYABLE WHEN A VENTURE GOES AS WELL AS IT’S GONE IS WHEN YOU SHARE THOSE EXPERIENCES. —TERRY WALLACE, CEO, TRANSCO LINES
The lanky, tall Wallace, described
by a co-worker as a ball of energy, sips on a Diet Mountain Dew in mid-after- noon, a habit he says he wants to break. Nevertheless, he offers a visitor one, too. He’s the son of a truck driver, and though his father hoped he’d be a banker, Wallace chose trucking management straight out of college, and crossing paths with Grojean led to ownership.
STARTING LINEUP Wallace said he and Grojean were
approached by a mutual acquaintance of Zella Harrell’s, who was selling the com- pany started by Jim Harrell in 1984. “We’re entrepreneurs, and we
really have a passion about the industry,” Wallace said. “And we said, ‘We’re inter- ested in taking a look at it.’” Standing out to make Transco Lines
attractive was its expedited component, with its drivers operating as two-person teams. Also, Wallace said, “It has an authorization to haul hazardous materi- als. We didn’t have that at Riverside. We thought it would be a good fit and bring value to our overall operation.” In a little more than three years, the
new ownership has doubled the number of power units; Transco Lines will finish the year with 350. Also, Transco’s revenue has tripled in three years to in excess of $100 million, Wallace said. “When we came into Transco Lines,
the company had a great reliance on broker freight,” Wallace said. “However, the rates are low, and over the long term, it’s probably not a sustainable business model. We came in and saw what we had. We increased the rate per mile very substantially. In doing so, we’ve added
a number of customers to the mix at Transco Lines. “We have single drivers and teams.
We thought we would grow exponentially on the team side, and we have; we started at 45 teams and are just under 200 teams now.
“It’s been great for the business, and
we’ve had a lot of customer support.” Transco Lines has updated its fleet,
Wallace said, to where the average truck age is no more than 1.4 years old — “in our industry that’s very modern,” he said — and the trailer age average has gotten younger as well. Russellville was always going to serve
as headquarters even with the new own- ership, Wallace said, “and we plan to be here for many, many years. The reason is, there are great people here.” However, Transco Lines is also in
the process of expanding its base into the North Little Rock area, mainly due to the proximity of its routes running through Interstates 30 and 40. The new location, serving as site for mechanics and offering driver stopover amenities. “It’s been great for us. We’re finish-
ing up a big investment with more driver amenities there. That was a 2015 initia- tive for the company,” he said. “We will have everything from his and hers show- ers, changing areas, to washers and dry- ers, comfortable waiting areas, TVs, food availability. Jim Coffern, the vp of maintenance,
has been at the new North Little Rock location since the first of the year. “We signed the lease in the third week in March, and I was there to take keys in my hand. We scrubbed floors and washed walls. And we started hiring mechanics
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