{"id":228,"date":"2019-08-01T15:03:05","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T15:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/?p=228"},"modified":"2019-08-02T13:25:02","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T13:25:02","slug":"oakley-starts-work-on-new-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/other-news\/2019\/08\/01\/oakley-starts-work-on-new-building\/228\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakley Starts Work on New Building"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Al Muskewitz<\/strong>
Wright Media Editor-in-Chief<\/em>
 
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. \u2013<\/strong> Dennis Oakley has always liked the idea of having every aspect of Bruce Oakley Inc. under the same roof. Now, it’s getting a bigger roof.
 
Years of steady growth in personnel and services has caused the company to outgrow the current 17,000-square-foot headquarters building on its 20-acre campus along the Arkansas River. So, it has broken ground on a two-story, 22,000-square-foot building and thrown in a 2,200-square-foot state-of-the-art driver\u2019s lounge to boot.
 
\u201cWe\u2019ve been in this same building and kind of expanded it out since the \u201970s and now we\u2019ve just grown so much that we\u2019re having to move and update right here on the river; that\u2019s going to be really sharp,\u201d Oakley Trucking director of recruiting Jeremy Kellett said. \u201cThat\u2019s not typical of Oakley. We like to kind of be flying under the radar, low profile, but this is going to be super nice. We\u2019re all looking forward to it.\u201d
 
The current headquarters has an open design that keeps everybody close to the action and makes it easy to communicate with various departments, but it is a building for every aspect of the business.
 
The new building is going to be for all divisions, too, just with some elbow room. The entire trucking division \u2013 trucking, recruiting, dispatch, safety, accounting; about 50 employees \u2013 will occupy the first floor. There\u2019s also an expanded training\/orientation area. The grain, fertilizer, barge and parent divisions will occupy the second floor, which has a south-side balcony providing stunning views of the Arkansas River.
 
\u201cDennis is big on all of us being under the same roof to where we\u2019re able to communicate together,\u201d Kellett said. \u201cHe likes it to be open and we can all communicate and don\u2019t have to go far to see each other.\u201d

The plans for the new space have been under construction for a while and moved forward this year, then in late May\/early June heavy flooding hit the region. The river overflowed onto the Oakley property and understandably the project got delayed. Work proceeded on the driver\u2019s lounge while the water receded around the main building space and it is expected to be completed in mid-December. The office building is likely to open in June or July 2020.
 
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d said Oakley office\/accounting manager Tommy Mitchell, who has been on the project since its inception four years ago. \u201cI go out there every day and check on it. It\u2019s awesome to see it take off, especially after four years.\u201d
 
The driver\u2019s lounge Mitchell said \u201chas been a long time coming\u201d will have four and a half baths, a laundry, kitchenette and relaxation area.
 
\u201cWe\u2019ve really paid a lot of attention to detail,\u201d he said. \u201cNow that people can see real construction the drivers are pretty excited. They\u2019re asking a lot of questions.\u201d

Oakley has been around since 1968, but the company has been headquartered in North Little Rock since 1977, in a manufactured structure that has expanded steadily over the years. It added office space on several occasions, a wash bay and service bays to the shop. Now, it\u2019s bursting at the seams. 

When Kellett started at Oakley 25 years ago, the company had 100 trucks. Today, it has more than 850 dry bulk owner-operators. That may not seem a lot over that extensive a period of time, but the growth has been measured by the company\u2019s exacting code of qualifications for its end dumps, hopper bottoms and pneumatics drivers.
 
Purposing plans for the present building once the new structure is completed are uncertain, but there no plans to demolish it. The main scales are there, so it\u2019s likely to remain as a standing legacy to the company\u2019s growth.
 
\u201cWe\u2019re real excited,\u201d Kellett said about the new building. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve been in, it served a purpose, but we\u2019re ready for (this). It\u2019s going to be really nice. I\u2019m so excited. Dennis has really stepped it up to be able to give us all the amenities, the technology. The new building is going to be equipped with top-notch stuff. I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The photos depict the front and rear views of the new office building being constructed at Oakley’s North Little Rock headquarters.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Al MuskewitzWright Media Editor-in-Chief NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. \u2013 Dennis Oakley has always liked the idea of having every aspect of Bruce Oakley Inc. under the same roof. Now, it’s getting a bigger roof. Years of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[119,122],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions\/245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}