AT A GLANCE Terry Wallace, President, Transco Lines Inc. AGE: 52


FAMILY: Wife Cindy; daughters Taylor (20, student at University of Alabama, chemical engineering major) and Taryn (18, senior in high school, captain of competitive dance team).


COLLEGE: St. Norbert College, Green Bay


FIRST JOB: Schneider in Green Bay, as a driver manager.


YOU’RE 6-FOOT-3, DID YOU PLAY BASKETBALL? I did, but I really played a lot of baseball, and I played through college. I was a pitcher. I was in the top three in lowest earned-run average in our division. I pitched at Cooperstown (New York, at the Hall of Fame Museum field). When I was living and working in New England, I pitched all around there.


ARE YOU A PACKERS FAN? I’m a huge Packers fan. I have the certificate that says I’m one of the owners of the Packers, which entitles you to get to visit the stadium and see different parts of it. I waited 31 years for season tickets and I finally got them last year!


LIVING IN NASHVILLE WHEN YOU’RE NOT IN RUSSELLVILLE, ARE YOU A COUNTRY MUSIC FAN? I am a fan. My wife is more of a fan. When I met her she had a graphic design studio on Music Row. She did a lot of work for the record labels and artists. She would would do album covers. Before computers, she was the one who would make an artist’s wrinkles go away. She was very involved in that business. We have friends in the music business. My girls are huge fans.


DO YOU SEE FAMOUS MUSIC ARTISTS IN NASHVILLE? Yes, often. People like Taylor Swift. Tim McGraw. His kids play sports against the schools where my daughters have attended. You can pretty much pick a name, we probably have seen them. Our house is very close to where Johnny Cash lived.


WHERE DO YOU VACATION? My family likes to spend time in Gatlinburg, Tenn. We like to hike in the mountains. What I really enjoy is going where there is a roller coaster. If there is a new rollercoaster, I’m going. It was not always like that, they used to scare the heck out of me when I was a kid.


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tow, to move back to be around family. Whether it’s trucking or telecom-


munications, Pool said, the goal is the same. “Learning the industry and the dif-


ferent drivers of revenue and expenses is what I’ve had to learn,” said Pool. Among the management team,


Pool says with a laugh, “I’m rarely the smartest guy in the room, but I’m smart enough to pay attention.” The sheer volume of growth


Transco Lines had experienced in such a short time created challenges for the management team, he said, and Pool brought in a fresh perspective of effi- ciencies. “Once we laid out a plan and were


able to evaluate where we could make some changes, we were able to make the changes necessary to handle the volumes better, and we’re still working through that,” Pool said. “Terry is really good at keeping everybody on task and getting done what we need.” Pool brought aboard three addi-


tions, one with a technical background. “It’s probably what they were lacking the most,” he said. Transco’s safety chief, Harry


Kimball, marked 40 years in the truck- ing business in August. “I’ve had five jobs in 40 years, I’ve loved them all, and this one is second to none,” he said. Kimball started on a dock loading trucks, then learned to drive, worked in operations for eight years, and has spent the rest of his career in safety. “I handle anything that can be a risk to assets.” He, too, wasn’t looking to move but was contacted by a headhunter, first met Grojean in Las Vegas, and came aboard March 31, 2014. “When I talked to the owners, they


wanted to lower their safety scores, lower the cost of accident frequency. This was a good fit for me… Not all car- riers have that culture, but this one did. I was really excited about being a part of it.” Kimball, who has enjoyed a success-


ful career leading national safety orga- nizations and winning safety awards, quickly took note of the management


group the owners had put together. “This is a true team,” he said.


“Everybody here is working toward the same goal. We’re bringing the drivers in, getting them to accept the culture ... everybody has each other’s back. “You can see the thoroughbreds


of the industry have been brought in. Everybody has a specialty that they are extremely good at. It blends to where you are one wheel. It’s exciting to watch it grow. Terry and them have done a great job of putting the team together.” Pool said, “Harry is a safety guru.


He knows that stuff backward and for- ward. Brad is pretty young for his posi- tion but really sharp. Anne-Marie had been knocking it out of the park long before I got here ... It all has to work together, bringing together people from different parts of the country to be a team, and it works well here.” When the idea of a team photo to


accompany this feature story came up, Tim Pool, the local guy, knew where to stage it: Mt. Nebo. The transplants, most who had not visited the scenic site before, loved it, they all said. The view was spectacular. And the view of Transco Lines’ future is great, too. “The success is hard to argue with,


but who knows with the economy and all that?” Pool said. “But, with the vision that Bill and Terry have, what they want to do, their background and their knowledge, they’ve pulled it off before, and you can’t help thinking the success is going to continue. “The future feels real bright. I came


in not knowing what I wanted to do. It’s not like this was a career goal of mine, I just happened to luck across it and I’m trying to make the most of it.” The success, according to Wallace,


is all due to the players he’s drafted. “We’re blessed,” Wallace said. “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 ven- ture goes as well as it’s gone is when you share those experiences. It’s been fun to watch people grow and have fun and enjoy the successes that we’ve had. That’s been very fulfilling for me.” ATR


ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2015


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