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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Driven to succeed

Trans-System CEO holds down his end of trucking industry

Jim Williams is CEO of Cheney-based Trans-System, located off the I-90 Medical Lake exit. (Dan Pelle)
Michael Guilfoil Correspondent

You could say Jim Williams literally fell into the trucking business.

“I was roller skating with a bunch of friends,” Williams explained, “when the bottom of my rental skate came off, and I hit the floor. I thought I’d just sprained my wrist. The manager apologized and gave me a bunch of passes.

“The next day my wrist was swollen. Turned out I’d broken it, and my medical bill was $320.

“I didn’t have any medical insurance,” Williams said, “so I went back to the skating rink and asked them to pay the bill. They just brushed me off, so I sued, and was awarded $10,000. I used that to buy a permit, put some money down on a Peterbilt tractor and rent a trailer, and that’s how I got started trucking.”

Today, more than four decades later, Williams is CEO of Cheney-based Trans-System, with three shipping subsidiaries, a commercial driver-training school and 1,000 employees, including his three adult children.

During a recent interview, he described how the industry has evolved, and why, at 72, he keeps his commercial driver’s license active.

S-R: What were your interests growing up in Spokane?

Williams: My family had a trucking business – James J. Williams – so I was exposed to it from an early age, and enjoyed it. But my father passed away when he was pretty young, and after my grandfather – the original James J. – died, my grandmother sold the business.

S-R: What did you do after high school?

Williams: I tried college, but basically flunked out. After three years in the Marines, I went back to school and earned a business degree at Eastern. I worked at James J. Williams my last two years of college thinking I might have an opportunity to move up in the company, but it wasn’t going to work out. So after graduation, I sold real estate with my uncle for a little while, then bought my first truck in ’72.

S-R: What were the early years like?

Williams: Expo ’74 helped me get established, because that was a busy time. In 1978, I bought System Transport after the owner died. The company had no assets really, but was recognized in the trucking industry, so I took the name. Gradually we grew with the help of Kaiser and some other big contracts. We created TWT Refrigerated Service to haul beer for Joey August Distributors. And in the mid-’90s, the people who owned James J. Williams wanted to sell, so we bought it for nostalgia more than anything else.

S-R: Who are your clients?

Williams: All of our accounts are niche businesses. Probably 80 percent of our business in each division is done with fewer than 15 customers.

S-R: Was Trans-System ever at risk of failing?

Williams: Oh, god, 100 times. A lot of bankers have told me I’m broke. But I’ve survived on passion and perseverance.

S-R: How did the recession affect your business?

Williams: In early 2008, we were loading 20 trucks a day at Genie Industries (a Moses Lake-based lift manufacturer). By that November, we were down to 20 a month. We had 150 parked trucks, and lost money from late 2008 until March 2010. If we hadn’t already had strong relationships with bankers and vendors, we wouldn’t have made it.

S-R: How about now?

Williams: Profitwise, we’re having the best year we’ve ever had.

S-R: What challenges do you face?

Williams: A lot. Not enough drivers. Too many regulations. The environment. Litigation. If one of my trucks bends someone’s fender, they want 10 times what they’d expect if a car caused the damage. We all rely on trucks today, but nobody likes them. If a truck tailgates me, I get upset too. But our drivers work hard to earn a good image. We have employees who have gone 2 million, even 3 million miles without an accident.

S-R: What do your drivers haul?

Williams: Our Systems Transport division carries aluminum, steel, man lifts, and blades and towers for the wind-turbine industry. TWT specializes in fresh foods and beverages. And James J. hauls fertilizer, bulk flour, and chemicals used to treat water.

S-R: How do you get jobs?

Williams: We bid on them.

S-R: Are you the biggest trucking firm in Spokane?

Williams: For full loads, yes. We don’t haul LTLs – less than a truckload.

S-R: How has technology affected your business?

Williams: We monitor everything about each of our trucks – location, speed, lane departures, hard brakes, following too closely, taking an exit ramp too fast. And customers use our website to see where their freight is.

S-R: That’s a big change from the old “Smokey and the Bandit” days, when what happened between pickup and delivery was at a driver’s discretion.

Williams: It is. Monitoring devices started appearing 20 years ago, and they create better discipline. We have 600 company drivers, and each new hire gets four days of orientation. We preach how we want them to drive our trucks, and reward them for good behavior and accident-free miles.

S-R: System Transport participates in the EPA’s SmartWay initiative to reduce air pollution and improve fuel efficiency. What does that involve?

Williams: Things like low rolling resistance tires, fairings on the side of trailers and auxiliary power units, so drivers can stay warm or air-conditioned in the cab without the engine running.

S-R: Fuel prices have fallen dramatically. Does that help your bottom line?

Williams: A little. But we index the cost of fuel each week and it’s not included in our bids, so that sort of takes fluctuations in fuel prices out of the equation.

S-R: Why the current shortage of drivers?

Williams: It’s a combination of things. Years ago, we were fortunate to get a lot of fellows coming out of the lumber industry, mining and farming. But now our driver base is older than it should be. Younger people are less willing to leave home for days or weeks at a time, and are less comfortable with the physical side of the job – securement and tarping, and getting a little dirty. They’d prefer to drive a van. And because of the way entitlement programs work, a lot of guys who should be working aren’t, or they’ll freelance for cash.

S-R: How much do your drivers earn?

Williams: Those who want to put in the hours can earn $60,000 to $70,000 a year, plus benefits.

S-R: Could someone today do what you did 42 years ago – buy a truck and start their own business?

Williams: I don’t know that they could. It would take a lot of money just from a regulatory standpoint, and if you go through any scale in any state today, they immediately know if you’re in compliance.

S-R: Is that job security for you?

Williams: To some extent. But our trucks all have electronic logs that begin recording every time the engine starts. Drivers who still use manual logs – maybe 40 percent of the market – can make a trip in one day that would take us two because of hours-of-service limits. Until everyone has electronic logs, we’re at a competitive disadvantage.

S-R: What’s the outlook for the trucking industry?

Williams: Good, from the drivers’ perspective. I think finding enough of them is going to be challenging.

S-R: Is trucking hard?

Williams: Tying a load and moving tarps around is work. But it’s like anything in life – if you like what you’re doing and take pride in doing it well, it’s a good job.

S-R: What do you look for in driver applicants?

Williams: Of course, they have to pass a background check – drug test, driving record. It doesn’t hurt to be a bit introverted if you’re doing long hauls. But nowadays, with Skype and all, drivers can communicate better with their families. And it’s up to us to match drivers with the right job. There were times when, if we had a shortage of long-haul drivers, we’d say, “You’ll enjoy this.” But we were wrong. Now we have fleet managers who deal with 25 to 30 drivers, and they have to know when to get drivers home, even when the drivers don’t think they want to go home.

S-R: What advice would you offer someone interested in driving trucks?

Williams: They have to have their CDL (commercial driver’s license) before we can talk to them. Washington requires they attend a four-week school, which costs around $4,000. We train 300 to 400 students a year.

S-R: Do you still have a commercial license?

Williams: I do. I’m 72 and haven’t hauled a load in almost 40 years. But I keep my CDL active because, if it expires, I can’t get it back without going to school.

This interview was edited and condensed.

Spokane freelance writer Michael Guilfoil can be reached via email at mguilfoil @comcast.net.