was somebody they could go to if they had a problem. They knew they could go talk to Dave, and he’d listen to them.” Ferguson had instructed that E.L.
Farmer would be sold after his death and the proceeds used to form a charitable foundation for the betterment of Odessa, so Musgraves set to work growing the compa- ny to make the sale possible. Locations and agents were added. That goal was almost achieved until an oil bust happened in 2008-09, but the company weathered the storm and continued to grow, reaching about 300 trucks. Todd said that while the company had some losses during those years, it was stron- ger afterwards than it was before. Finally, the company was sold in August 2013 to TransForce, a Canadian company. Musgraves is now general manager and vice president of operations. Todd, meanwhile, retired from the company and formed the J.C. Ferguson Foundation, which has donated money to many worthy orga- nizations, including the TXTA Foundation. Oil prices have fallen since the
company was bought, leading it to shrink to about 220 trucks. But such challenges are nothing new for Musgraves and the rest of the compa- ny. When hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling made rig-moving less profitable, the company switched its focus to other areas. During the current downturn, it’s moved away from drilling and into production and reduced its number of locations from 14 to seven—all in Texas except the one in Hobbs, which is run by Kristi and the cou- ple’s youngest son, Joshua. TransForce has not put pressure on the company to change its approach. “Their business model is to buy a
company and let it continue to operate as long as it’s being successful, and they understand the downturn, and they under- stand it’ll come back, and they’ve been extremely supportive,” he said. In the same way that TransForce has
been patient, so has Musgraves. Decades in the industry have taught him not to get too excited in booms or too despondent in
26 Issue 3, Fall 2016
busts. In good times, he tries to upgrade equipment, solidify relationships and keep overhead costs down. “Oil is going to be cyclical,” he said.
“There’s nothing you can do about that, and you need to prepare for the down times, and you need to be ready to take advantage of the good times. …” “Back after the ’08, ’09, when things started coming back in ’10 and ’11, people
Musgraves at the office
He serves as chairman of the TXTA Foundation as he has done for several years. He is also on the TXTA executive committee, currently serves as vice chair- man and will be chairman beginning next summer at the TXTA Annual Conference. He’d like to see the association’s member- ship increase. “TXTA is a great organization,” he
said. “I mean, it does a lot of great things for the carriers and for trucking legisla- tion, and there are a lot of great people within the organization. (I’ve) met a lot of great friends, and it’s a family.” Musgraves said the TXTA does for
motor carriers what they don’t have time to do for themselves in the politi- cal arena. “You get your voice heard at the
Capitol,” he said. “You get to know ahead of time things coming at you that will affect your industry. If we don’t all pay attention to what laws are being put out there, you’ll turn around and wake up and realize that that just changed the whole way you have to do business. So you have to stay on top of that, and I certainly don’t have time to be sitting in Austin reading every bill that goes across somebody’s desk down there. So our staff does a great job of staying on top of the things that will affect our industry.” Musgraves does have a life outside
were saying this is a 10- or 20-year cycle. This is different than all others. It’s never going to end. And I told my wife and any- body that’d listen, ‘We better get ready.’” The same dynamic has existed with
natural gas, which for a time seemed to be the energy source of the near-future. When that boom occurred, it wasn’t a problem for E.L. Farmer to react because it could just deliver the same types of equipment to new customers. Then prices fell. “When it was eight and nine dollars,
it was the biggest thing ever, and it wasn’t ever going to end, but as soon as somebody tells you it’s never going to end, that’s when you need to put your wallet in the safe and forget about it,” he said. Musgraves is active in the industry.
of trucking. He and Kristi’s two sons—Joshua is the youngest and the oldest is Justin, a firefighter – have given
them two granddaughters and a grandson who between them are ages 10, eight and five. Dave and Kristi own rental property and dabble in remodeling and reselling homes. He plays golf, and they love to trav- el. They’ve been to Hawaii, St. Thomas and Aruba, and are planning a Mediterranean cruise. And yes, he does enjoy going back to
California to visit family. He just doesn’t plan on staying. “I came out here with a five-year plan
to get rich and go back. … Well, that plan’s still stretching out as we speak,” he said. “But the Permian Basin’s really become my home.” R
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