WALKER
TEXAS RANCHER… AND TRUCKER
Walker with son Houston
Johnny Walker has taken J.H. Walker Trucking from two 18-wheelers to a 125-truck family business
BY STEVE BRAWNER Contributing Writer
Johnny Walker wanted to be a ranch-
er. Instead, he became a trucker, which enabled him to become a rancher, and he loves being both. Walker, the oldest of 10 children,
became the first in his family to attend Texas A&M, where he graduated in 1976 with a degree in animal science. Ranching, however, would have to wait until he saved enough money to afford land and a herd. His first opportunities after college – as a ranch hand earning $600 a month and sell- ing feed for Purina – didn’t look promising, so he took a job driving a truck for Barnett Services out of Houston. “It opened the doors to every business
out there,” he said. “I was in steel mills and every kind of manufacturing facility. You got to go in the back door, and everybody wanted to show you what they did, and you got to see it all, see how it was manufac- tured, where it came from. And it kind of intrigued me, and I thought, ‘You know, I’m as smart as the guy I work for, and I could probably do this myself.’” Walker saved $10,000 that first year
while living at home and used that money in 1978 to start Superior Delivery Service, a small package delivery firm in his home- town of Houston. He bought a pickup truck; rented some space; asked his mom, Mary Jo, to answer the phone; and hired
his first employee. “I had no idea when I started driving
a truck that I would like it,” he said. “All that was a way to make some money while I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do in life.” Meanwhile, Walker began thinking
bigger. In 1981, he bought two 18-wheelers at an auction and created J.H. Walker Trucking – one of two divisions of J.H. Walker Inc., along with Superior. The com- panies had to be separate because intrastate trucking was still regulated, and Walker had to obtain specific hauling authority for his clients. Walker first obtained authority to haul building materials for a truss com- pany along with fertilizer. He then pur- chased at an auction a limited oilfield authority to haul across West Texas. In 1989, the company bought Knox Trucklines, giving it full state authority to haul oilfield equipment and steel and enabling the company to increase its Houston footprint while establishing a ter- minal in Grand Prairie. The company continued to grow after
the industry was fully deregulated. In 1997, it purchased Patterson Trucklines, which lengthened its territory into the Gulf Coast. The company also established three termi- nals in Louisiana – in Houma, Morgan City and Lafayette. In 2003, it purchased Stewart and Stevenson Transportation. Today, J.H. Walker operates about 125 Continues
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