The Trucker Chronicles

Greensboro, NC — The wheels on an industry devastated by the economy are starting to roll again.

During the past two years trucking companies were hurt by the economy. Now, industry experts say business has improved during the past three or four months.

Since demand is up, transportation companies are hiring.  Albert Newcomb knows the impact of down business. He said after nearly two decades on the road, he’s never seen anything as bad as the past two years.

“When you go from eating steak to go down to eating vienna sausages, it’s pretty tough,” he said.

Central-Virginia based Newcomb leases out the truck he owns and operates.

When the economy went downhill, Newcomb went from working five or six days a week to just two or three.

“Things started picking up in November. Instead of working two or three days, we started working four and five days. And then, you started getting a choice of where you wanted to run because things did get better because there was more freight moved,” he said.

Trucking companies are seeing that trend nationwide, including Thomasville-based Old Dominion.

“We’re particularly adding across our network depending on where the need is, dock workers, local drivers, line haul drivers, as well as owner-operators,” said Chip Overbey, vice president of national accounts and marketing for Old Dominion.

He said the company is the largest transportation company in North Carolina and is among the top five or six companies of its kind in the country.

“Old Dominion’s managed to weather that storm. We were the only publicly traded ltl (less than truck load) carrier that made money during that period of time,” Overbey said.

Harry Sink, associate professor of economics and transportation/logistics at NC A&T State University said about 4,000 transportation companies filed for bankruptcy in the past two years.

Old Dominion survived, but laid off 14 percent of its workers.

According to Overbey, that’s because the industry saw a 13 percent reduction in work. So far this year, business is back up six percent, he said.

“We’re cautiously optimistic with that, but you have to keep in mind where your base was. So, even being up six percent, you’re really only not quite back to halfway from where you started,” Overbey said.

How long the upswing will last is unclear.

“You’ve got a little bit of a building of inventory, you’ve got a little bit of a fiscal bump, so the question is, how sustainable is that and how long will it last?,” Overbey said.
He said Old Dominion is taking the opportunity to continue to grow.

“This ramp-up continues to help us build, fill capacity, hopefully build more profitability so we can re-invest back in the company, which will give more jobs, more technology,” he said.

Newcomb said the transportation industry is trying to keep things as minimal as possible to remain competitive.

“Just take it day by day and try to move some. Everything will work its way out and hopefully the economy will get back on its feet,” Newcomb said.

Sink and Overbey said there is a downside to the upswing in business. They tell me transportation rates will likely go up, which means that cost will be passed along to consumers.

There’s more to the transportation business than truckers. Companies are also hiring “behind the scenes” people, Overbey said. Old Dominion offers driving schools. People interested can also enroll in a community college program, such as the one offered by Davidson Community College.

http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=144498&catid=57