The Motor Carrier Act of 1980 changed the trucking industry forever when it was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on July 1, 1980. The act deregulated our industry, eliminating barriers to entry and creating a market-driven rate environment which brought competition, innovation and tremendous efficiencies to the supply chain.
It was the birth of the truckload industry. We saw a generation of entrepreneurs and leaders across our country embrace the opportunity and start new businesses or grow their existing businesses to unthinkable heights. Truckload was the new frontier, bringing cost savings to shippers as carriers capitalized on the lower cost truckload model to move freight by the truckload directly from shippers to their customers in a more timely manner and “just in time."
I was in college in 1980, majoring in accounting and didn’t have a clue about the trucking industry except what I heard from my friends that were transportation majors. Some of them had family members that worked for a company in Fort Smith, Arkansas, called ABF. I thought it was kind of an easy degree and didn’t give it any thought.
I was going to be a CPA and was on the road to do so. That road took me through business classes like ECON 101 (economics) and cost accounting (accounting for widgets), both necessary but just something I had to do along the way.
After graduating in 1982, I went to work for the largest accounting firm in Arkansas and the first big audit I worked on was for a chicken company in Springdale. My job was to work on verifying inventory numbers and I spent two solid weeks driving around rural Northwest Arkansas counting chickens, actually by counting chicken houses that were full of chickens.
Accounting was great! Also on that audit, while working in Tyson’s board room with some of my colleagues, I remember one of our managers asked if any of us were getting in on the JB Hunt IPO. I didn’t know who they were and didn’t have any money anyway, so it never really was a consideration for me.
Fast forward two years later I decided public accounting was not my forte and decided to pursue a career in private accounting. The first opportunity I had was a controller position with a small mobile home trucking company. Trucking. Go figure. Five years later, after working for a couple of other trucking companies as their controller, I went to my dream job at Maverick. I guess it is fair to say it has been all about trucking for practically my entire working career.
