Going with the G


Hauling food-grade products in Kosher-certified tankers, Jasa Transit has carved out a niche that reaches beyond Nebraska’s borders


BY ERIC FRANCIS Contributing Writer


Tere’s a lot of stuff that needs hauling out


here in America’s breadbasket. Tat wasn’t news to Rick Jasa because he’d


grown up in Nebraska and spent his adult life in the transportation business with companies like Ruan Transport, Herman Brothers, and Foodliner. But in the mid-1990s, as he looked around and saw Cargill building a new plant in Blair and Bunge North America building one in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Rick saw tons and tons of opportunity in the form of agricultural products waiting to be shipped around the country by a food-grade bulk trucking company with the right know-how and ambition. His wife, fellow Nebraska native Linda


Ingram-Jasa (they were still newlyweds at the time, having exchanged vows in 1996) saw the opportunity, too, and suggested they be the ones to start that company. So in 1997 they did, founding Jasa Transit,


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which is headquartered in Blair and has terminals in Manly, Iowa, and Fort Smith, Arkansas. In 1999, Linda — who had been an active partner in the company since its inception – became majority owner. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that she took to the steep learning curve of a new career with gusto, given her own background. “I was an educator for 30-something


years,” she said. “And now I know a lot about trucking.” “We knew the tanker business, knew the


food-grade business, that made it much easier to start up,” said Rick. Today, Jasa Transit is running around 125


food-grade, Kosher-certified tank and dry bulk trailers that haul food-grade products. It’s a niche operation, requiring a lot of specialized equipment and knowledge from the people running the company. “It’s very specialized… because of the food-


grade side of it,” said Rick. “Te shipper base really wants to deal with people who do food


NEBRASKA TRUCKER — ISSUE 1, 2016 — www.nebtrucking.com


grade, know food rules, know GMP [Good Manufacturing Process], HAACP, and Kosher guidelines.” “Tey want somebody who is proactive so


there’s no problem,” said Linda. “It’s highly detailed.” She added that from the equipment to


loading, unloading, and cleaning tankers, it’s a highly detailed process. So their tanker drivers have to have specialized knowledge, too. “Tere’s no baffles in any of our trailers,


whereas a lot of the chemical trailers have baffles,” said Rick. “Te drivers have to know how to handle that liquid in motion in the trailer.” You have to be gentle when you’re hauling


5,000 to 7,000 gallons of food-grade lactic acid, say, or soybean oil. Rick said he’s talked with DOT officials who say that, during driving tests, they can tell who’s been hauling liquid tankers.


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