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Innovators: Drive for stability
By Aaron Huff
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As president and chief executive officer of F.T.
Silfies, Randy Sheeler has the 60-year-old company
on track to meeting the lofty goals set by its
owners, investment firm Quantum Equity Partners. |
In June
2005, Quantum Equity Partners (QEP) concluded its national
search for a trucking executive. The McLean, Va.-based
investment firm recently had purchased F.T. Silfies, a
family-owned, dry bulk cement carrier. QEP believed it had
found the right person to achieve its plan to grow the small
trucking company into a major mid-Atlantic competitor.
In 1999, Randy Sheeler had played an instrumental role in
the merger of Montgomery Tank Lines and Chemical Leaman
Corp. to create Quality Distribution Inc., the largest bulk
carrier in the nation. As senior vice president of Quality
Distribution, Sheeler also helped the company go public in
2003; in 2005, the company had revenues of about $700
million.
Today, as president and chief executive officer of F.T.
Silfies, Sheeler has the 60-year-old company on track to
meeting QEP’s goals. In about 18 months, the Nazareth,
Pa.-based company already has more than doubled its
revenues.
When Sheeler began at F.T. Silfies, one of his first items
of business was changing the former family-owned company
into a corporation. The second-generation family of Forrest
T. Silfies, who founded the business in 1946, left the
company after the acquisition. Many of the third generation
had positions in the company that were not well defined.
After evaluating each employee, Sheeler placed them in
positions that were the best fit for the new company.
Having the right technology was another critical task in
laying a foundation for growth. Sheeler implemented a new
enterprise fleet management system and onboard computing and
mobile communications throughout the company’s trucks.
“Every system here was an antiquated system,” Sheeler says.
“We automated every single function. From a technology
standpoint, what used to take eight hours now takes one
hour.”
After making the necessary changes in staffing and
technology, Sheeler next focused his efforts on growing F.T.
Silfies both organically and through acquisitions. The first
acquisition, in March 2006, was Gensimore Trucking, based in
Pleasant Gap, Pa. The acquisition enabled F.T. Silfies to
expand its services to include lime, pebble lime, glass
stone and flyash on high cube trailers, as well as hazardous
waste throughout central Pennsylvania.
The second acquisition was of Price Trucking in Aberdeen,
Md., in August 2006. “Mr. Price asked us to buy the company
based on what he saw Silfies doing since the new owners were
in place,” Sheeler says. “It was a smooth transaction.”
Driving growth
While acquisitions have played a significant role in the
company’s growth to date, F.T. Silfies also has grown
organically through new driver recruiting and retention
strategies that Sheeler initiated. These programs have led
to an increase in company drivers by more than 130 percent
and a decrease in turnover from 48 to 32 percent since 2005.
In addition, the average age of drivers has decreased by 11
years, demonstrating the company’s success with tapping into
a younger driver pool.
Changing the fleet’s equipment, for example, had an
immediate impact on recruiting, retention and fleet
maintenance costs. When Sheeler began in June 2005, many of
F.T. Silfies’ trucks were 1999 models. Today, most of the
trucks are 2006 and 2007 models. The first round of 2006
tractors went to the most senior drivers and then to the
company’s largest terminal in Nazareth; this freed up 2002
and 2003 models for use by other terminals. New vehicles
then went to drivers at any terminal with more than nine
months employment. The company also had spec’d lighter
tractors and trailers to increase payloads, which translated
into more earnings for drivers, since they are paid on a
percentage of revenue.
Meanwhile, after conducting a market study of drivers in its
regions of operation, Sheeler decided to spend additional
money advertising for younger drivers with families.
“Most people associate truck driving with being gone all the
time,” says Sheeler, who focused F.T. Silfies’ recruiting
message on home time. The company’s average length of haul
is 180 miles; drivers work long hours, but they are home
nights and weekends and can earn $50,000 to $65,000 a year.
As another recruiting and retention tool, Sheeler created
theme trucks. Currently, the fleet has 10 such trucks; one
has a mural of an American flag on the hood, while another
has a mural of a World War II battle with fighter airplanes.
“We did it to attract attention and to put a little pride
back in the driver’s hands,” Sheeler says. The company has
created a contest with a $500 reward for drivers’ children
to design its next theme truck.
With new equipment and theme trucks, Sheeler says drivers
have more pride in their rigs and are taking much better
care of them than in the past. The company is even saving
money in wash costs because some drivers ask to take their
vehicles home and wash them at their own expense. And
maintenance costs have gone down significantly since drivers
are taking extra precautions to avoid damage while at
construction sites.
One of the most significant recruitment and retention
programs, Sheeler says, was creating a President’s Road
Team. A select group of 10 drivers belong to this team, and
benefits include having a special uniform. Four of the
drivers drive theme trucks; the others have new vehicles
with the group’s name painted on the hood and with different
dominant colors, such as red, to stand out from the fleet’s
standard blue trucks.
In addition to having the best trucks in the fleet, team
members earn about $5,000 extra each year for training new
drivers. All new hires have to spend one week with a road
team member for hands-on training, regardless of their past
experience.
“The first time a driver feels the surge of liquid or dry
commodities push the tractor, it’s often a wake-up call and
a time of tense wheel gripping,” Sheeler says. “We want to
make sure our new hires know exactly what they’re in for,
and who better to train them than an experienced driver who
does it every day for a living.”
During a driver’s first 60 days with the company, a road
team member is on call to answer any question the driver has
about pay, home time, equipment, etc.
“We’d rather have a driver talk to a driver and let them
handle an issue rather than have the driver have to learn
how to maneuver around in the system,” Sheeler says. “It has
done wonders for retention.”
Some drivers may have a question or concern they do not want
to take to a road team member, so Sheeler created a driver
hotline where drivers can call anonymously, at any time day
or night, and speak to a live person. The company provides
the caller a timeline for when it will respond to the
concern or complaint, and gets back in touch with the
driver. To date, most of the feedback has been constructive,
Sheeler says — for example, when drivers point out conflicts
in safety at a particular construction site.
“We’re going back to customers and saying ‘we will not
deliver there unless you make it safe,’ ” he says.
Opening the channels of communication with drivers — through
in-cab technology, the road team and venues such as the
driver hotline — probably has helped drivers quickly spread
the good news about F.T. Silfies. Between 35 and 40 percent
of new hires come from driver referrals, Sheeler says.
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